The Assasin
by Makari
Summary: This is really a spin off of the X Men movie, as opposed to the comic book, what little difference that makes. This is my first fanfic and so far it has been received well. Unfortunately it seems that I've lost interest as I went along, so unless you te
1. Part 1

Disclaimer I don't own nothin' that's written in here that was previously owned by Marvel, or anyone else with all the paperwork and legal jargon saying they own those characters. Richard Freyes, Nemesis, and other original characters belong to ME!!!!! *smiles* Thank you for your attention.   
  
  
The Assassin  
  
Chapter 1  
  
The world summit was only 8 hours away, but security was tight. It took nearly two weeks of planning and waiting to get the equipment needed to get within the patrols to the Statue of Liberty, but it all paid off. Richard Freyes clung to the side of the cement ground of the Statue's island a few feet beneath the surface of the water waiting. He was already down there for 3 hours, he had to get there early because he had to be sure to be in position before the national gaurd began it's security sweeps with sonar through the water.   
  
The torpedo he was launched in had long since sank well below scanning distance, if it hadn't hit bottom already. He thought about the sensation of it all and shuddered again. Richard was never going to be fond of underwater actions. The last light he saw was from the roof of the launch room in the sub he had to hire to shoot him within the security perimeter as the sea hand bolted the last steel plate over the hole he climbed in through. The fact that he was then bolted into a 12 foot long torpedo that was going to be fired at over 70 miles per hour without any form of directional control wasn't a comforting thought to him. The only way he was to get out was when the timing device triggered the charges along the seam of the steel skin blasting both halves in opposite directions leaving Richard continuing on his trip. The torpedo was already filled with water before the sub fired him and he couldn't help but fear that there would be a malefunction and he would never be found as he ran out of air from his scuba tank and drowned in a steel coffin he willingly climbed into, at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Needless to say, the muffled explosions and the disoriented sense of freedom that came from his release was a very welcome experience.  
  
Then he swam, for almost an hour he kicked his way towards the statue. His goggles specially made to see long distances under water. It wasn't often that gadgets managed to make Richard feel like he was a kid with new toys, but when he was shown these goggles that emitted it's own sonar pulse to create an image for him to see, his own excitement surprised him. And now that he was field testing them, they worked better than he had hoped. Everything appeared in varying shades of blue, and he could see the concrete walls creeping closer with each kick.   
  
So now he clung to the side of The Statue's island with hooks tipped with small drills to grip to the wall. It was essential he didn't move while the boat patrols continued their sonar sweeps. And it was here that he had to wait for 8 hours for his target. A large group of world leaders were gathering just on Ellis Island for a convention dealing with all sorts of politics and world matters, among them was mutant issues for the various nations. The important fact about the evening, however, had nothing to do with what was going to be discussed or decided, but it was the fact that this was the largest single gathering of world leaders in the history of, well, the world.  
It was no small wonder that someone was going to take advantage of this fact and had some devious plan cooked up.  
  
Richard didn't know who was employing him, nor did it matter to him. He had dealt with the man (although Richard didn't really know if it was a man, the closest he was ever allowed to get while communicating was a secure phone conversation scrambled to sound like some sort of robot alien from a Star Trek movie), who called himself Nemesis, twice before, and both times Nemesis paid his bills and so far as Richard could tell he hadn't been sold out to any other parties... yet. It was a pleasant surprise when Richard received an Email from Nemesis, the subject titled 'Blue light special at Zellers', that being their agreed code for 'I got another mutie for you to plaster'. Richard talked with him two days later and was given his current mission.  
  
Nemesis had learned that an extremely powerful and influencial mutant calling himself Magneto, had built a machine that can transform normal humans into mutants and is planning on rigging it up to the Statue of Liberty on the night of the big fancy world conference. With this machine, which Nemesis called 'The Easter Egg', Magneto's planning on turning all of the world leaders present into newly converted mutants, forcing new sympathies to any mutant policies they would enact in the future. Richard's new mark was to be one of Magneto's henchmen, a very recognizeable mutant calling himself Toad. Richard only had a small window of opportunity to accomplish this task, and this 'Brotherhood of Mutants' was also going to be supported by 2 more individuals, neither of them had been successfully identified at this time (nor by the time Richard ended up leaving for the mission).  
  
This was the most ambitious project Richard had embarked upon to date. And only the third mutant hit he had ever attempted. Before becoming acquanted with Nemesis, Richard was just a normal hitman, and like other hitmen refused to deal with mutants because of the unpredictability of their powers. There was only one other known mutant assasin, The Razor, and he was declared to have died under mysterious circumstances after his first successful hit. All Richard knew from his contacts was that during an autopsy, Razor's body was burnt to a crisp on the inside. His flesh looked just fine, but all his internal organs were so black that when prodded with the doctor's probe they crumbled to dust. The case was considered closed and filed under that little used category of 'Spontaneous Combustion'.  
  
When Richard was first approached by Nemesis with his first mutie target, Richard wasn't going to wait to turn the mission down. And in the process Richard intended to make it clear how insane anyone had to be to accept a mutant target with more than one colorful metaphor. However, before he could even begin to talk, he saw the number of zero's on the payment, all in advance. It was enough money that he could retire quite happily on some island down near the equator if he wanted. Before he knew what he was saying, Richard had accepted and was stuck. He had heard of Nemesis before. Nemesis only contacted those who he feels are the best in their fields, and all those who had failed had met with unfortunate accidents (That's what the authorities labelled Jimmy's car bomb, an unfortunate premature excessive gasoline combustion.). On the flip side, those who worked well were paid twice as much as the highest paying standard assasination. No one knew why Nemesis was always taking out bounties on mutants, but when that much money was involved, no one who worked for him really cared.   
  
So now here was Richard, clinging to the side of the Liberty island waiting to get his crosshairs between Toad's ugly eyes to splatter his genetically defective brains all over Lady Liberty's gown. The first mutant mark had Richard hooked; once tasted, the thrill and challenge of taking down a mutant was too much to turn away from. It required a whole new way of thinking. A whole new feeling of power. Ever since Richard was a young boy and the first mutant information became public, he had always felt it unfair that they got such powerful abilities giving them a natural advantage over normals. But now, Richard was more than making up for that lack of natural prowess. With technology, fancy water seeing toys, Richard was turning the table back in his favour. And he only has 3 more hours to wait til Magneto is supposed to show up with his crew.   
  
All those normals were probably already gathered for their little meeting on shore. They didn't matter. Richard closed his eyes and focused his mind. Killing mutants was a whole new ball park, and Richard intended to forge the path in his field. That meant he couldn't make any mistakes, that he couldn't let anything that didn't relate to the mission get in the way or cloud anything that might end up being critical to the success of the mission, and probably his chances of getting away alive, even though if he managed to get away alive without killing his target, he wouldn't be around to appreciate that fact for very long, Nemesis would make sure of that. Richard focused on his target, mentally examined the pictures and video clips he'd seen that had Toad in them. His brain examined every known power Toad possessed, a wall climbing ability, extroadinary jumping ability, an extremely agile tongue that Toad used for all sorts of functions. Toad also had exceptionaly strength for a man? his size. But so far as Richard knew, Toad didn't possess any mental powers or steel skin, or anything that might prevent a bullet from scrambling up his head. And all Richard needed was one second to draw a bead and take his shot.  
  
Checking the time on his goggle readout, Richard saw that Magneto should only be minutes away. Checking over his shoulder, he saw a patrol boat headed straight for the island. But that isn't part of the gaurds patrol route. A muffled splash startled him, and looking over to his right, Richard could see the body of a police officer sinking into the water, a dark ink floating away from his back like gas as his blood mixed with the frigid waters. Okay, so Magneto must be on that boat. Probably killed the crew and disguised someone to be the boats pilot. That's good, he knew how they'd get up to the top of the statue then. The boat sided up with the island, and Richard saw a large figure wrapped in thick furs step on board. A few minutes later he saw Magneto float onto the island, and the large, bear of a man cross back with a young girl bound and gagged slung over his shoulder. The funny thing about that was that on both the girls hands were thick winter mittens, and a ski mask over her face. A naked woman stepped across last, and Richard let a brief thought slip through his mind, "I wish I could get above the surface just so I could see the color of her skin and the details of her pub's.". He quickly refocussed himself again and watched in silent intimidation as the Easter Egg floated across the small window Richard had between the ship and the island. So far as he could tell, it really was just an over sized egg, big enough to hold a few men if need be. His first impulse was that it was a bomb, maybe Magneto had changed his plan and just intended on blowing up New York with a Nuclear warhead mounted in the Statue of Liberty. Richard had to admit the idea had a rather nice, even if rather morbid, poetic irony.   
  
The ship the Brotherhood cruised in on began to split down the middle of it's hull, as if it were being pulled apart, but Richard could see nothing that might be doing that. The ship seemed to just pull itself in two and sink. But Toad never disembarked. Of course, he was on the island waiting with the big man. Richard looked around and saw no other ships within his sight. Just to be safe, he would wait another ten minutes. The Egg couldn't possibly be attached within ten minutes and powered up. Richard had at least half an hour, if not more, before Magneto activated the egg. That meant that he had at least twenty minutes to take out Toad and start his retreat. Richard didn't intend to be around to get caught in the effect of the Easter Egg, and had a personal underwater propulsion system hidden at Liberty Island long before he showed up.   
  
Just as Richard was about to climb up and breach the water, he saw ripples beneath the water. Some sort of flying machine was causing a water displacement, and it was approaching the island quickly. Looking up, Richard saw that a thick fog had moved in and now some sort of hover ship was flying in under the cover. The ship came to a hover right above Richard and lowered itself to about two feet off the water, then dropped the remaining distance. The shock almost caused Richard to lose his grip on his hooks, but he managed to keep ahold and watched with fascination at this new developement. Because sonar doesn't project anything flat, like paint, Richard didn't see the symbol of the X Men on the bottom of the ship which he would have recognized instantly. Instead he tried desperately to recognize the four people who climbed up onto the island. Two women and two men, one of them wearing some sort of eye apparatus, probably night vision, or infra-red. A disturbing realization crept up on Richard then, he didn't actually 'see' the ship until it was less than three feet above the water directly above him, when the sonar created a vague shape which defined itself very fast as it thudded down onto the water. That meant the ship couldn't be seen by sonar until it's less than ten feet away? And it isn't like Richard was using a normal type of sonar. The goggles would project even through the sound damping fields created by the new anti sonar defences of the American Navy. Could that mean that these new comers have technology beyond the best that America has for it's nuclear submarines?  
  
Richard waited ten minutes before he broke the surface of the water and peered above the lip of the island. He looked just in time to see the last two of these people enter the statue through it's main doors. He lifted the goggles from his eyes and looked back at the ship and almost slipped back into the water when he stared straight into the dark blue X painted in a circle on the side of the ship. This was huge, the X Men had shown up to fight The Brotherhood. This definately changed the playing field. Richard decided to just wait and see how it played out. With their escape ship sunk, Toad, nor the other two could get off the island without going to the patrol boat docked off the other side of the island. If worst came to worst, Richard could get them there. Richard began the painstakingly slow crawl across the side of the island towards the boats docked off the other side. He wouldn't dare try to go across the surface, even if the X Men disregarded him as a civilian, there was no telling if the Brotherhood would let him get across or kill him just for the pleasure of it. Toad's history showed that he'd done it before.  
  
The next forty-seven minutes were quite uneventful from Richard's point of view. He got to the other side of the island in a little over thirty minutes and dared to climb above water just long enough to assemble his rifle. Once built he clung to the side of the wall, with his rifle nailed just above the water in the shadow of the boat, and watched hoping to catch a glimpse of the action that must be going on inside.   
  
It wasn't long after that his wish was granted. Off one of the balconies just a few stories up Richard saw something come flying off, as if blown by a gust of wind. That something was followed by a larger something and lots of little somethings. Then a man came flying off the balcony and he shot his tongue and caught a rail to keep from sailing off into the water. It was Toad. Richard began to scramble over to his rifle, this was probably the best shot he'd ever get, but he stopped when he looked back up and saw the sky.  
The previously clear evening had filled itself with thick storm clouds, and lightning was starting to flash. Then a bolt streaked down and seemed to aim itself to where Toad was joined to the rail as his tongue remained his only contact with land while he struggled against some gale wind. Toad's entire body glowed for a second then with a faint scream the mutant's tongue let go of the rail and flew away from the statue as electricity blasted him off the rail, probably having blasted the tip of Toad's tongue into a million pieces. Richard was almost ready to panic that he would never find Toad and the fucker would swim away and live, when his reasonable mind took hold. If the lightning didn't kill him, then he's at least be hurting. And even if he did live and was swimming away, Richard's personal water jet was right underneath him, it was hidden under the boat.   
  
Richard took apart his rifle and stowed it away and climbed down and grabbed something that didn't look too dissimilar to the torpedo he was launched in only 9 hours earlier. It was open on both ends and throughout the hollow center were numerous propellor's and a stabilizing fin on either side to keep it level. He grabbed the hand holds and pushed the ignition button. The engine started with a quiet purr and Richard darted through the water as fast as he dared to get to where Toad had crashed into the water.  
  
There wasn't much difficulty in finding the body. When Richard found Toad, the mutant was cooked well enough to have been served as Thanksgiving dinner. Richard drew his knife instinctively and prepared to slit the dead throat before him, just to be sure, when he realized this was perfect. Toad was obviously dead, and purely by circumstance. There was no way he was going to escape Liberty Island that night, but as chance had it Toad was killed by a freak bolt of lightning. It was probably caused by one of the X Men, but that didn't matter. There is absolutely nothing to point a finger at foul play, especially foul play by a normal. Richard laughed out loud in his wet suit and turned himself around. He didn't bother to look back at the body or the statue, he didn't want to jinx his luck by pressing it. So he just left.   
  
Chapter 2  
  
It was the next day that Richard found out how the rest of that night progressed when he caught the cover story in the paper. It turned out that the machine was destroyed by unknown forces and 7 men, police officers and ship hands, died in what is believed to be a conflict involving two mutant factions. One police officer was found alive in critical condition, and one mutant, who the police would not identify, was taken into custody. The fact that 7 men were killed by mutants was more important than any other factor in the story. There was no real attempt to explain what the point of the machine's electrical discharge was, and consequently no credit was given to the unknown band of mutants who destroyed the machine before it's purpose was fulfilled. None of this surprised Richard.  
  
Richard had already sent Nemesis the Email telling him that the party for next Christmas was already planned (which, of course, meant that the target was wasted). The fee for the job was paid in advance so that meant that Richard didn't expect to hear from Nemesis again until he was to be told of his next target. Once you accepted your first mission from Nemesis and stayed in the working field, you were expected to accept any other mission Nemesis had for you, so he didn't bother with the pleasantry of waiting for you to accept before he sent the particulars. Most mercenaries wouldn't put up with shit like that from their employers, but the amount of money that Nemesis was putting up and his obviously great influence gave him special priviledges beyond most employers. This didn't bother Richard very much, he had a goal before he retired, and the massive sums that Nemesis offered would shorten the time it took to raise the money he wanted by more than half.   
  
  
He stopped in a coffee shop for lunch and while he waited for the waitress to get a new sheet of muffins from the back he caught a glimpse at the TV news.  
  
"A remarkable turn of events at the World Leader Conference at Liberty Island last night. A mutant faction calling themselves 'The Brotherhood of Mutants' attempted to sabotage the meeting with an electrical pulse originating from a machine attached to the Statue of Liberty that was intended to kill everyone present."  
  
Richard then saw a grainy news camera image zoomed as close as possible watching the pin prick of white light at the torch on the Statue. The woman continued speaking as the light grew into an undulating radius of electricity. It made Richard think of a big jellyfish as the light grew.  
  
"The Brotherhood was opposed by another mutant faction known by most as the X Men, who defeated the Brotherhood, and destroyed the machine that was intended for the world leaders on Ellis Island, less than one mile off the coast of Manhaton."  
  
The electrical jellyfish had grown so big that it filled most of the camera which had scaled back it's image and showed the light almost reaching the shore. Then the light dissapeared and zooming back on the statue where it showed that the flame at the top of the Statue's torch was missing. It then cut back to the face of the woman telling the story to America.  
  
"When authorities got to the island only the leader of the Brotherhood, the mutant Eric Lensherr, was found and taken into custody pending charges. Seven men were found dead around the grass surrounding the statue, and one police officer was found in critical condition inside the lobby with severe stab wounds. Police would not comment on the cause of the deaths or whether Eric Lensherr or any other mutants are suspected to be related to the deaths or to the unidentified police officer found in the lobby. The police officer is expected to recover."  
  
"Sir? Your muffin?"  
  
Richard was startled out of his trance and saw the young girl looking with what was either concern, or exasperation at his lack of focus. He thanked her and took his muffin and coffee to a table and watched the rest of the report.   
  
It now showed the top of the statue again as the camera tried to focus on three individuals walking around the rim of the torch. The image was grainy from the distance and the reporter could only speculate on the identities of the people, but Richard knew it was the X Men, well, one of them was alot shorter than he remembered any of the X Men being, so he speculated that one of them must have been the girl he saw the big man carrying. Maybe two of them died in the battle with Magneto's mutants.  
  
"Here we see three unidentified individuals, who are assumed to be responsible for the destruction of the device and the aprehension of Eric Lensherr, and a fourth, probably wounded when the device was destroyed."  
  
Richard watched in amazement as they stepped off the rim of the torch onto nothing and floating in the air, walk into a hatchway removing them from site entirely. Even more amazing was that the wounded X Man floated just behind one of them into oblivion. The newscaster had absolutely no explaination siting this to the greatly varied and unpredictable powers held by more powerful mutants. But it suddenly clicked to Richard, the hover ship. The one that couldn't be seen on his sonar goggles til it was literally right on top of him couldn't be seen by camera's either. The missing X Man was probably flying that ship and the others just stepped onto it's wing and climbed aboard leaving Magneto for the cops to pick up.   
  
The rest of the report just wound down as they had interviews with the police officer in charge of those who found Eric, laying unconcious by the rubble of his destroyed machine. There was nothing else on any of the other's Richard saw with Magneto when he got off his boat, and Toad's body never turned up. The big man and the naked woman must've escaped after the X Men killed Toad, or else the X Men just disposed of the bodies much like Razor's spontaneous combustion.  
  
The coffee was still hot, and it tasted marvelous after the late night Richard just had. The muffin and coffee went down quickly and Richard left to take care of some groceries and a few other errands. When he stepped out of the coffee shop Richard saw a hopscotch grid drawn in colored chalk on the sidewalk. A little star and moon was sketched in beside it. Richard smiled and took a deep breath and walked down the street whistling. He was just a normal Joe going to pick up some bread and milk and the day was beautiful.  
  
  
Richard got home that evening shortly after sunset. He started up his laptop and began putting away groceries. Once it finished it's screech signalling it was connected to the net, Richard forgot about the computer and began boiling some water for soup.  
  
Usually Richard would wait for more than a month before hearing from Nemesis again, and he didn't dare accept from anyone else on the off chance that Nemesis might want him at the same time. So he'd just lay low in a rather poor lifestyle (not that he didn't have the money to live better, he currently had more than ten million american dollars in various banks) until he got his next target. It surprised Richard to no end when he saw the flashing icon at the bottom corner of his computer screen signalling that an Email was waiting for him. The subject line read,  
  
'Blue light special at Zellers'  



	2. Part 2

Chapter 3  
  
"You did very well Richard."  
  
The grainy, distorted voice of Nemesis always caused Richard to grow a little uneasy. It wasn't the sound, but just the fact that he had absolutely no idea who he was really talking to. Richard didn't like the fact that he knew even less about this strange man? now than what he thought he knew before he even began corresponding with him.  
  
"Thanks, but I'll be honest, I didn't kill Toad. I got lucky I guess."  
  
"I know Richard, but I hired you to take care of him, and before you left, Toad was dead. Whether you were directly responsible or not doesn't matter, it was a successful hit."  
  
"Well thanks."  
  
It also bothered Richard to talk over the phone so openly because he always assumed his line was tapped, if not by the officials, then by someone who'd be happy to turn him over to the officials. But during his first conversation with Nemesis, Richard was assured that any conversation he had with Nemesis was completely secure. It was actually the only aspect of Nemesis's operation that was explained to Richard. It happens that when the line of communication was open, the conversation was actually secured in a signal that would show up as nothing more than distortion, and a program on Nemesis's end would have a 'conversation' with itself using Richard's voice, altered to be talking about normal worldly matters with different persons, chosen by Nemesis before calling. Apparently, Richard was busy planning an upcoming date with a girl named Naomi Cals.  
  
"I do not like to waste your time, so let us get to the real matter of this call."  
  
"I'd appreciate that. But I have to say that I'm surprised at how quickly you got ahold of me for another mark."  
  
"I surprised myself Richard. But when trying to choose who I would have conduct this mission, I had to be very careful. I expect this will be the toughest mission I have put out yet so I needed the very best person I knew. Don't let it go to your head Richard, but you are the absolute best, and I have every faith that you can successfully pull off this target."  
  
Richard felt a little giddy from the compliment.   
  
"Who is my next target?"  
  
Nemesis told him, and Richard's exhaltation was quickly replaced with a sinking feeling of dispair.  
  
"You have to be kidding! How am I supposed to kill him?"  
  
"Don't fret Richard. Get ahold of the supplier for the necessary equipment. You have six months to complete this mission. I have just sent you another Email containing the known details about the location of the Mark. I expect you will need to get ahold of some of your contacts to find out some necessary information, but this is all well within your power. I am ready to send you a sum of ten million American dollars. Would you like it in one of you're existing bank accounts? Or do you need to set up another one?"  
  
Richard was a little stunned and caught only half of what was just said after he heard the number 'ten million'. That is the largest sum he has ever heard of anyone getting paid for a single hit. He quickly got himself back to the conversation because he didn't want to irritate Nemesis at this point (as if he ever wanted to irritate Nemesis).  
  
"Don't worry about it, just today I set up another twenty overseas accounts. I'll send you the information right now."  
  
Richard turned to his computer and opened up an Email and quickly wrote in the bank account information and clicked 'send'.  
  
"I just sent an Email to you."  
  
"Thank you Richard, you will have the money within the hour. I expect you will conduct this mission quite professionally and I look forward to hearing of your success."  
  
"Have a good night."  
  
"You too Richard."  
  
The line clicked off and Richard fell into his chair sighing. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to pull this one off. Oh well, there is a solution for everything isn't there? It just takes time, and although this isn't the largest window of opportunity Richard's been given, it's still a hell of a lot of time. I has to be enough time, since although Nemesis doesn't give easy missions, so far as Richard could tell, they were reasonable requests, relatively speaking. Richard decided to sleep on it and start worrying tomorrow. Even still, such a publicly known target was a huge risk. Richard had never participated in a political assassination before, and this wasn't a political assassination, but the target was so well known it might turn out to have big political ramifications. That fact made this target a very uncomfortable target for Richard to pursue.   
  
Richard got undressed and climbed into bed. He didn't bother to eat, he had lost his appetite from his conversation with Nemesis. It surprised Richard that the world had progressed so far that such mutants were now viable targets. Richard didn't fear much in the way of public outrage, there was still to much fear and prejudice towards mutants that the general, unspoken concensus among people would be "One less to worry about.".  
Richard closed his eyes and despite how much he tried to comfort his own mind and tell himself it was possible, he just couldn't seem to wrap his mind over the target himself.   
  
It was Eric Lensherr, Magneto.  
  
To be continued....  
  
I hope you enjoyed reading it, and whether or not the rest of the story makes it on here will depend on the reaction of you, the reading public. I implore you to be honest so that the story will indeed improve with each new posting. Please know that I already know the rest of the story so although your welcome to make plot suggestions, it's unlikely they will be incorporated, but I am interested in the actual writing skill, plot holes, badly written paragraphes, or particularly well written portions. I look forward to hearing from you and feel free to Email me your hate-mail for this blasphemous perversion of the X Men universe. *smiles* Have fun, and I'll look forward to getting back togethor with you in my next installment. 


	3. Part 3

Disclaimer: I don't know nothin' that belongs to Marvel or any of Da Big Men with the fancy legal paperwork. Original characters like Richard Freyes, Nemesis, and all the others you'll recognize (because you wouldn't have seen them in any comic) are all MINE MINE MINE!!! Any similarities to living dead or undead is coincidential blah blah... wait... I think I copied a zombie in this one. *shrugs*  
  
I'll be honest in I don't know exactly what this story should be rated, but there are parts I feel would probably be R, and those are for violence. Richard can't seem to get laid so there isn't much room for sex. Whatever, better to be safe so it's rated R.  
  
Bless you all for your quick enthusiastic reads and reviews. I won't forget you. Here is chapters 4, 5 & 6 to help keep the enthusiasm going. There is alot more coming still, so hopefully I'll manage to snag at least a couple enthusiastic readers who eagerly await the next installments. I will try to get the next chunk of chapters online as quick as possible. Enjoy.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
No light reached the interior of the ventilation shaft, but that was alright because Richard could see with his goggles . The world appeared as if he was looking through a red lense. He crawled for hours through a constantly shifting maze of tubes and air ducts through the complex.  
  
In time Richard saw light streaming up from the bottom and reflecting off the roof of the shaft. Dust could be seen floating in the beams as they streaked through the grate. Richard could hear voices echo down the shaft but he couldn't quite make them out. He noticed something scratched into the side of the shaft to his left. He looked over and scratch crudely into the metal siding was written, "No Men Allowed..."  
  
Richard continued his crawl and looked down the grate where a young girl slept soundly on a bed. She looked no older than 16 and was very pretty. Standing beside her bed were two men. He saw a bald man in a very expensive suit talking with another man in a long black raincoat and a black brimmed hat. The second man took off his hat and Richard jumped in the vent he was watching from. It was Magneto.  
  
Richard drew his pistol from his side and crouched above the grate and took aim at the top of Magneto's head. The cock made a quiet click as Richard put his finger on the trigger. The gun made a muffled crack as it fired and Richard saw the man with the black hat crumple to the ground. The bald man looked up and Richard fired again and watched the man's face vaporise in a red mist, and the body fell with a loud clump that woke up the girl. She looked up directly at Richard and he lined up the sight on her forehead. She pointed a finger and whispered, "No men are allowed past this point. You are not allowed past this point, go home."  
  
The trigger slid easily back and the gun bucked and fired the empty cartridge out of the side of the chamber. The case bounced off the top of the vent shaft, landed with a quiet chink against the metal sheet and rolled around in a small circle before coming to a complete stop. Richard looked down into the room and the girl was replaced with Magneto who lay flat on his back, blood soaking into the bed sheets. Magneto's face was covered with his black hat. The grate gave in with a single kick and Richard let himself into the room to make sure Magneto was dead, the girl already forgotten. He loaded another bullet into the chamber and pointed the gun directly into the hat and reached to pull it aside. Richard pulled the hat aside and put the gun against the forehead and stopped himself from pulling the trigger once he saw the face....  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Only once before did Richard ever have a dream about an assasination, but this was the first time he ever had a nightmare about one. The images faded into the fog that comes with waking up from a dream and within minutes Richard couldn't remember the face that scared him into waking up. He was never a man to believe in prophetic powers from dreams, but admitted to himself that dreams were some voice deep inside your mind that surfaced in your sleep because you couldn't, or wouldn't, hear them when your awake. In the case of nightmares, the voices come screaming from the darkest depths with messages about ill times or omens and shit like that.  
  
Richard sat up in his bed and shivered for what seemed to him like hours. He finally swung his legs over and stumbled to the bathroom to wash the sweat off his face, and take a much needed piss. The cold water snapped him out of his post apocolyptic dream trance and Richard got a good look at his own face. "Old man, you look like pure shit." he muttered to himself. He looked back down an ant crawled over the faucet. Richard decided that today he'd finally get those ant traps he'd been promising himself.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll have a special meal for you little fuckers. I thought I'd be lenient, but none of you have come up with your share of the rent so it's time you got out."  
  
Richard flicked the light off and climbed back into bed. It had occured to him more than once that talking to himself (or even to ants in the bathroom) might be seen as a sign of insanity, probably from living by himself for the past year, and not getting laid since.... hell he couldn't remember if he had even been with a woman in the last two years. Don't get thinking about sex, plenty of time for that when you own an island somewhere. Besides, your only insane if you start responding to yourself.  
  
He laid his head down on the pillow and wondered if he just responded to himself, but decided to drop it. Besides, your only obsessive if you're obsessed about how you act when your alone and have time to worry about your own obsessions.  
  
The next thirty minutes were fitful and didn't yeild a moment where Richard even thought he could sleep again. He turned on the lamp in his bedroom/livingroom/kitchen and decided to write that night's rest off. He set a kettle to boil and went to get a paper.   
  
The sun was just starting to rise and the sky had a pretty hint of pink, but all the real good colors were blocked off by the city line. Richard quickly dashed across the street barefoot and put the coins into the vender. He grabbed a paper out and ran back to the warm floors of his house. Once he climbed down into his basement suite and locked the door behind him he clicked on the radio in time to catch the beginning of the morning news.   
  
"In an astronomically quick decision by the judge of the Supreme Court, Eric Lensherr was found guilty yesterday and sentenced to twenty years in a secret maximum security facility for the attempted assasination of the more than fifty world leaders on Ellis Island, and the second degree murder of eight police officers on Liberty Island at last week's World Leader Conference. Charges are still pending regarding the destruction of a train and over fifty-thousand dollars worth of damage to the train station itself. Police are still on the look out for two other mutants who have not yet been identified in regards to the train station incident. Police urge the public to keep away from these two if they are seen as they are considered extremely dangerous. No identity has been placed on the other faction who defeated Eric Lensherr and no one has tried to claim credit for his defeat. There is speculation that this mysterious group was involved in the train station incident and may have been responsible for the death of a four year old boy who was crushed to death by debris when the roof was blown off by what is currently being labeled as an unknown energy discharge from the eyes of a mutant. Any information is being called for, and there is a three thousand dollar reward for information leading to the aprehension of the two mutants seen with Lensherr..."   
  
Twenty years at a secret facility? Richard knew it was going to be hard to get to Magneto, but this would be really hard. If only he could find out who judged the trial, or who Magneto's lawyer had been. Neither of them would be bribed, though, being a defence lawyer for mutants paid an obscene amount of cash so information couldn't be bought from the lawyer, and the judge of the Supreme Court of America? Might as well try to talk the President into publicly announcing a UFO was being held in Roswell and was going to be donated to a museum for public viewing. So how is one to find this information? The prosecution? No way, they're all too well paid and disciplined to give out information like that. Nemesis's second Email said Magneto was going to be held in a secret military facility.   
  
How the hell would they get him to court? He is probably the most dangerous mutant ever made so public, maybe even in all of America. Anything made of metal could be used to disatrous effect. It wouldn't take much for Eric to rip a bolt from the judges desk and plunge it into his heart, or rip the guns from every officer in the room. Something isn't adding up here. And how did Nemesis know a week in advance how the trial would turn out and how Eric was going to be held, but not where? Again, Richard was beginning to feel overwhelmed at how much planning he was going to need to pull this off. It was already one week down from six months. The only reason Richard waited so long was that he had a feeling the trial would be over soon and if it told him where Eric was going to be held it could save him alot of time. Well, time was wasting, and it was time Richard got ahold of the supplier.   
  
Getting in touch with 'the supplier' is not an easy task. First one has to phone his pager and leave a constantly changing password that was only given to special employers who in turn gave it to special employees. This month Richard told the pager, "I'm making chicken tonight and was wondering if you wanted to join me for dinner. Call me.". And then, the supplier would get ahold of you since the special employer would give the supplier the information he needed to get ahold of the special employee for chicken dinner. Richard made that call at nine in the morning. Now all he had to do was to go shopping, and stop by the police station. After all, he had a few ants to pay respect too.  
  
  
Richard popped the hatch of his chevette up and a young boy loaded the bags into the back of the car. Customer service is the most important aspect in any business, Richard understood that, and he was pleased the grocery chain understood that too. Hauling all the bags out to his car was never his favorite part of shopping and was pleased this service was provided for him.   
  
"How long have you been working here, son?" As a boy Richard had never liked it when old men called him 'son'. It always felt patronizing. Therefore, Richard swore to himself that he would never be a patronizing old man, hell he was never going to be an old man. But after a few summers and drunk nights, one wakes up in his apartment a forty six year old man paying four hundred dollars a month to rent a bachelor basement suite from a senile old woman, and with over ten million dollars just deposited into the bank. And now he was calling this boy 'son'.   
  
"Just a couple months mister Freyes. My uncle owns the store, that's why they hired me so young I guess."   
  
"What's your name?"  
  
"Bobby. Bobby Meyers."  
  
"Just like the weiner?" Richard laughed and Bobby gave a polite little laugh and looked around. It struck Richard he really wasn't funny and Bobby wasn't fooling anyone in that he wanted to be gone from this crazy old? man.   
  
"Well, you tell your uncle your the best damned employee he has. Here." Richard slipped a twenty dollar bill out to Bobby and that look of escape left the boys eyes.  
  
"Shit man, you don't have to give that to me, I'm just doin' my job." Yeah right, you're looking at that money like you were staring at Michelle the cashier's breasts less than ten minutes ago.   
  
"Don't worry about it Bob. Take the cash and buy Michelle a flower or something."  
  
The kid's eyes flashed up to Richard's face with bewilderment and red was already creeping into his cheeks. Bobby slipped the bill into his pocket and muttered a quiet thanks and quickly sauntered back to the market.   
  
Richard liked making friends like Bobby there. It was at a grocery store where Richard met Stephen Lauren five years ago. They bumped into each other in the soup isle and Stephen dropped his speghetti sauce. Well, the manager was feeling pissy that day and insisted that Stephen paid for the broken sauce even though Steve had been in the process of returning it to the shelf. Well Richard has a few pet peeves which he tends to stomp out without second thought, and poor customer service is one of them. Richard presented a masterful lecture on proper customer service and the manager quickly apologized and gave Stephen a new jar of speghetti for his troubles (Even though the lecture consisted of how a pussy starved little shit managed to suck cock all the way to his life goal of running a grocery store so he could ass fuck customers whenever his period was late). Well, the rest is history, and now Mr. Lauren worked with the New York state police as a special investigator in the mutant crime devision. It's important to remember that the little kindnesses in the world paid off in time.  
  
The Chevette started with a quiet purr, just because Richard wanted to look poor by driving a rusted microcar didn't mean he couldn't keep the guts in pristine order. Someone thumped on the passenger window and Richard hit his head on the ceiling of his car from the shock. It was Michelle the cashier and she was holding up something to the window. She was shouting at him, but he couldn't quite hear what she was saying. It sounded something along the lines of "Hey, Mister, No Men Allowed."  
  
Richard's mouth hung open and he found he was unable to say anything. He stared at the girl and forced his mind to reenter his head. She was holding a wallet against the window. Richard leaned over and rolled the window down.   
  
"What did you say?"  
  
"You forgot your wallet. I was afraid I wouldn't catch you Mister."  
  
"Oh, thanks. Sorry, I'm a little tired, I didn't sleep well last night."  
  
"No problem. Hey, have a good one."  
  
"Yeah thanks."  
  
Richard drove out of the parking lot feeling more uncomfortable, the dream coming back to him. Never before had he ever tripped out of his mind so much as he just did, and that wasn't something Richard wanted to experience. He just sat and let his car idle in it's spot long after Michelle had left and thought about what he should do. He really wanted to go home and pour a glass of whiskey, but that urge was thankfully brief. It was time to go see Stephen, he would know where Magneto was being held. Then, he would give the ants in his bathroom a dinner they weren't likely to forget.   
  
  
"He's in a top secret military facility under the Nevada desert. I was shown it before Magneto took up residence there."  
  
Stephen Lauren sifted through the pictures spread across the table. He then found what he was looking for and handed it to Richard.   
  
"This is what Magneto is being held in. It's made completely out of a classified synthetic material and suspended by four chords of a similar material one hundred feet away from any surface. There is not a single piece of metal within one hundred feet of the cell. It connects with the rest of the world via a retractable plastic tube."  
  
Richard was looking at the glossy with growing admiration.   
  
"Why do they even have this thing? Wait, don't tell me. They built it because with the wide variety of mutants in the world, there might be a chance that they'd have to arrest one who's a walking bomb when he's within reach of any metal."  
  
Richard knew he wasn't that witty with jokes, but he knew that Stephen had no sense of humour to bother speaking of, so he wasn't all that self concious about cracking some bad ones. Stephen took no notice of Richard attempt and just continued talking as if it were a legitimate statement.  
  
"Actually, it was a virus containment unit."  
  
"What? You're fucking with me right?"  
  
Stephen did smile at that, "Don't be so surprised. Of course, officially I don't know anything. But it's just like in that guy Stephen King's book about the end of the world, there are black projects out the asshole of the White House that would incite a riot across the country if people knew for sure. And right now, making germs seems to be their new hobby."  
  
"Holy shit man, that's nuts." And Richard meant every word of it. His fascination with what he was hearing was doing it's part in puffing up Stephen, and the cop's chest rose just a bit at how well he was able to capture Richard's attention.   
  
"Get this, not only is the entire suspended cell completely synthetic, but the air itself doesn't get refreshed. There's a recycler that sucks in air, replenishes the oxygen and spits it out again on the other side of the room."  
By this point, Richard had run out of statements of amazement and wonder and just contented himself to nodding with wide eyes.  
  
"And this is the kicker. They can superheat the room to over one thousand degrees within thirty seconds. Just..."  
  
"Just in case the virus happened to break out." Both of them shared a moment of silence in homage to what they were looking at on the table.   
  
"What did they do with the viruses then if they're dropping Eric to rot in there? I somehow don't expect they would've just put a padlock on the cabinet."  
  
"No, conveniently enough they had just finished a second facility just like it. I don't know where that one is but they had to work like hell to get everything transferred before the trial ended. I hear that judgement was put on hold for two days while all that shit was moved."  
  
Richard leaned back in his chair and tossed the picture back on the table. It was now time to see if this informant was going to tell him what he really needed to know, or if these last two hours were just a cruel taunt that would leave him searching blindly for what he needed to know.  
  
"Can you tell me how to get there?"  
  
"Why are you so interested in Eric?" Stephen shot back, and Richard's stomach sunk with dissapointment. He wasn't going to get to Magneto's jail, not by Stephen. If it were left up to Richard to do on his own, it would probably take over a month to find it through other information. It was just a pure fluke that Stephen happened to investigate Eric's involvement at the train station.   
  
"Come on Stephen, you know the rules of the game. You're getting well paid for all this and you're not allowed to ask."  
  
"Yeah yeah, I know. But I just don't see any real reason why anyone would be looking for Eric now. I mean, he's locked away and anyone with half a brain knows that no mutant has successfully gotten parole yet, let alone getting out early on good behavior. What else could anyone want? Aside from killing him?"  
  
Richard's guts just did a triple backflip and he felt his heart skip a beat.  
  
"He owe's me money on the Superbowl." This was going nowhere. The longer Richard stuck around, the more questions he'd have to divert.  
  
"Alright, I understand." Stephen conceded. Richard stood up getting ready to leave when Stephen spoke up again, "Listen. I'm going to see Magneto in five days. I'm hoping to question him about his two friends. He won't give up anything, I already know that, but I have to try. I can bring you along if you want. You won't be able to come in the cell with me, but you'll at least see first hand what I've been telling you about."   
  
God bless spaghetti sauce.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
A flashing light told Richard that a message was waiting for him as soon as he stepped into the house that evening. He put his bags down and pushed play hoping it was the supplier. All that was repeated back was a phone number read off of a computerized voice. No greeting or farewell, just the phone number.   
  
It was the supplier. And the phone number was different from the initial contact number. Well, the message was left only twenty minutes ago, and Richard had an hour to get ahold of him. Richard quickly put away his groceries then sat down at the phone with a notebook and a pen to make the call.   
  
Only once before had Richard ever dealt with the supplier. The supplier doesn't listen to what you have to say, in fact you didn't even get to speak to him live. You were given a recording that told you when and where to meet him. The recording only played once then it deleted itself, therefore it was important to write down what was said. Nemesis had also given Richard strict warning against recording the conversation, "He has a way to tell when he's being recorded. I don't know how he does it, but... One of my men had disregarded my warning and recorded his call just so he could make sure he didn't miss any information. Well, his head was found two months after he dissapeared." Richard had no intention of ever needing to be found.  
  
The recording on the other end of the call told Richard that his presence was required at the Taj Mahal on the corner of thirty second avenue and thirteenth street. Richard knew exactly where that was. Richard found out he was to meet at 2100 hours, shit, that was only twenty three minutes from now! Richard quickly ran out of the house and didn't realize he had forgotten to lock up.  
  
  
The white chevette slipped into an open spot right in front of the restaurant on the street and Richard gave a quiet thanks for the small blessings. He risked a glance at his watch, 8:57. Right under the wire.   
  
The Taj Mahal was a dimly lit restaurant and Richard thought, not for the first time about this particular establishment, that it was purpously designed for shadey dealings. The layout was long, therefore no tables were in a middle dining area, but segmented off in a booth against a wall. Richard told the waiter at the front counter he was meeting a friend and quickly scanned the tables.   
  
"Ah, John, I'm over here."  
  
Richard instinctively looked at the man who called out his alias for such dealings and saw a short man with a bulbous nose and wire rim glasses that made him look like a banker from one of those old western movies. Richard almost expected one of those bowler hats to be sitting as prim as can be on the table, but of course there was just a wine list which the man was looking at.   
  
In the quiet murmer of the restaurant, Richard didn't worry about being spotted. He wasn't worried about being tailed by anyone (and being followed by anyone was an unlikely prospect thus far, Richard was always very careful.), and knew that the supplier couldn't have been followed by anyone. It was a legend among those that knew of the supplier that when on official business he would have a dozen different drivers cruising the city in contact with each other and after less than two blocks the supplier would jump cars in the middle of intersections and even while in motion (everyone was always awed by these facts though no one would ever claim to have seen any of these things done.). Whether that was true or not didn't matter, all that was required was the safety that the supplier could not be tracked.   
  
"It's good to see you Larry, how've you been holding up you ol' dog?" Richard greeted the supplier in a rather raccous manner and shook his hand. They exchanged a few pleasantries and ordered dinner. 'Larry's demeaner changed instantly and Richard knew that it was time for business.  
  
"I'll be honest with you, I know who your current mark is, and for the first time in my life, I don't see any real way you can pull it off."  
  
"Well, the big guy believes I can so there must be a way."  
  
"I'm sure you can figure out how to get him, but how to get TO him is going to be the tough part. I mean, even if you know where he is, it's not like you can get any hardware to him, and I don't think they're going to be letting him out for mornings jogs for the next little while."  
  
"No safe is impregnable. Besides, I can't afford to think of impossibilities. I'm getting paid too much."  
  
Larry laughed, "True enough. Do you know what you want already?"  
  
"Well, I have an idea of what I want, but I don't know what the hardware is exactly called."  
  
"Well, shoot. I'll tell you if I got it or not."  
  
Richard smiled thinking, fuck you, you have abso-fucking-lutely everything. "First of all, I'm going to need a completely synthetic rifle and bullets."  
  
Larry just looked at Richard without allowing his face to seep any thoughts or emotions and Richard had no choice but to continue talking, "I also need a complete stealth suit with no metal in it at all. The belt strap has to be plastic. I also need dark vision goggles. The sonar won't help me this time because I'll need to see textures. The goggles can't be made of any substance that can be manipulated by magnetic fields either."  
  
"Fuck me. You realize that all this will cost a fortune, assuming I can even get some of this shit."  
  
"We'll worry about the price when we get to that. And I know you can get all that. You have fancier toys than that."  
  
"You're right, I can get all of that, but I don't know if it's possible to have all that and be plastic, man. Let's look at the rifle for instance, not as hard as the goggles to make synthetic but still going to be damn improbable. Even if I can get a plastic for the barrel that can take the heat and pressure, I don't see that I can make the firing pin or even the bullet casing out of plastic."  
  
Richard knew that this wasn't just a ploy for more money, Larry meant what he was saying. "Listen, I know you'll do your best so I'll trust your capable hands to do what they can. Even if you can't do it synthetic, at least find an alloy that responds minimally to magnets."   
  
"Of course, you can trust me to find you the best that's out there. I'm just worried one of my better customers is going to be taken out on a fool's run. That guy is dangerous, not to mention all the other guys that are gaurding THAT guy."  
  
"I know, but I'm a dedicated man. But just between you and me, I don't think even they will be able to keep him in their plastic prison forever."  
  
Larry laughed heartily at what might be the only real good joke he would ever hear from Mr. Freyes. As it turned out, it was. 


	4. Part 4

Disclaimer: You've all read it already, I own the original characters, the rest someone else has a piece of paper saying they own it.  
  
I'll be honest, I think this is the only part that could deserve an R rating, but oh well. I guess rating it higher makes my story seem more mature. *smiles*  
  
Chapter 7  
  
The meeting with the supplier went incredibly smooth, and Richard was promised everything he wanted within four weeks. And of course, the price was negotiated. All told, the bill for the first order of hardware, because when dealing with such complex missions Richard could never predict everything he'd need right off the bat, was over one hundred thousand dollars.  
  
Now it was five days later. Richard rode shotgun with Stephen out to the military facility that was currently housing Magneto. The air conditioning was a blessing, it looked to Richard that it must be about one billion degree's outside. The heat waves on the horizon made Richard sweat just from looking at them. Stephen's Saturn was infinantly more comfortable than Richard's beat up Chevette, but he grinned to himself that the little white piece of shit would kick the crap out of this fancy car in a race, if not a beauty pageant.   
  
Richard was in high spirits all day, but didn't talk much. He was too busy remembering the roads they took so he could get back here on his own.   
  
"Your not going to believe this place Rich. It's nuts. It's harder to get into than Area 51."  
  
Richard only caught "Nuts,... Area 51"   
  
"Rich, you alright buddy? You've been out of it all day."  
"I'm alright, just trying to get my bearings. How long have we been driving now?"  
  
"Eight hours."  
  
Richard blessed God for not condemning him to this drive in a Chevette, no matter how impressive it's guts were. "We've gotta be close to it, I don't think there's much more desert left."  
  
"Yeah, if you squint real good, you can see the first buildings in the blur on the horizon."  
  
Richard squinted, but he couldn't make out any buildings from any of the other dark splotches. He gave up and resumed his task of mentally catalogueing the roads. Stephen didn't bother speaking either and they drove in content silence. Faintly, Richard could hear U2 singing about New Year's Day on the radio. It made him think of a recent radio interview he heard about their new album, but he couldn't quite remember what it was called. He just remembered how preachy their lead singer sounded when he talked about God and the soul and how they were continueing their journey. Just lots of Christian shit like that. He remembered one quote by the lead, he had said, "There are so many songs about all the things a person can't take with them when they died. We have decided it's time people start thinking about the things they have to bring with them." It sounded awfully profound for a rock star who had a period of dressing up with devil horns for a while.  
  
Some buildings started to appear on the horizon and Richard's attention was quickly snapped away from Christian Devil dressing rock stars and their profound moments. The compound was surrounded by a chain link fence with barbed wire, and inside where various buildings, houses actually. Richard guessed the entire outer limit must be over 5 miles in diameter. Stephen drove up to the gate where an armed soldier stopped them and came to the driver's window, Richard took notice of two other gaurds, both holding automatic weapons, on the other side of the gate watching them.   
  
"Good afternoon sir, what business do you have here today?"  
  
"My name is Stephen Lauren, I'm chief investigator of mutant crimes with the New York state police. I'm here to speak with Eric Lensherr about his involvement with a couple of ongoing cases."  
  
"May I see your driver's license, registration, and occupational ID, please, sir." It struck Richard that despite how polite the young soldier was, he really wasn't into asking for ID. Stephen got out all of it and handed it over. The soldier handed it to another man standing in the outpost who immediately picked up the phone.  
  
"And who is this with you today, Mr. Lauren?"  
  
"This is Richard Freyes, he's an investigator from Canada who has similar interest in Mr. Lensherr about another case."  
  
"May I see your ID please Mr Freyes." Richard produced the doctored ID he had prepared for this specific event, and like Stephen's, it was promptly handed to the man in the outpost who was still on the phone.  
  
"It will just take a moment for you to be processed in." the guard kindly informed them. The waiting seemed to drag on and on. But eventually everything was handed back to them and the gate slid open.  
  
"Everything checks out. Here, make sure you wear these at all times while your within the complex and ensure you drop them off with me again when you leave." The young gaurd, whom Richard noticed was a Private Klinck, handed Stephen two clip on visitor tags.   
  
"Have a good day gentlemen." Stephen rolled up the window and drove into the complex.   
  
"Guess the money you paid for that badge was worth it. I'll be honest, I had my doubts that it would work." Stephen confided. Richard just shrugged and went back to studying the complex.  
  
Stephen eventually came to a stop in a parking spot clearly labelled "for visitors" and turned off the engine. "Well, here we are." The two men climbed out and walked to a double door with a pair of uniformed soldiers. Their tags were checked and the doors held open for them. They proceeded down a hallway that felt like it was completely sterile to Richard. They were greeted by a couple of men in business suits before they even got past the front desk. The taller of the two was older than Richard with a receding grey hairline combed with that professional cut that belonged in downtown New York. He approached Stephen and held out his hand, "Good afternoon, you must be Mr. Lauren?"   
  
Stephen nodded his head and shook the businessman's hand.   
  
"Ah good, we've been expecting you. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Frank Dodson, Mr Lensherr's attorney. This gentleman is Jefferey Waynes, my partner." Stephen shook Jeff's hand as well, and replied "It's good to meet you two. This is Richard Freyes, an investigator from Calgary." He then added as an afterthought just to be clear, "Alberta."  
  
Mr. Dodson's brow creased a bit and he said, "I wasn't expecting you Mr. Freyes, oh well no harm in killing two birds with one stone. Of course you both realize I will be present for your interviews with Mr Lensherr, and you will only be admitted one at a time."  
  
"Of course." Stephen answered, obviously hating Mr. Dodson already.   
  
"Well gentlemen, if you'll follow me I'll lead you both down to Mr. Lensherr's quarters."  
  
Richard wondered to himself what it must be like to defend a mutant in court. Defence attorneys already weren't the most popular human beings on the planet, and since Mutants probably fell a little under defence attorneys, a mutant defence attorney didn't seem to be an attractive career. Oh well, the money would undoubtedly be wonderful, and Richard could appreciate working in an unpopular career for money.   
  
The four men walked down the hall and caught an elevator just as a police officer was stepping off. Frank put a key into the slot above the buttons and hit an unmarked key. The elevetator began it's descent and Richard watched the glowing red numbers count up B1, B2, B3....  
Finally they stopped on B7 and they stepped out into an L shaped hallway with large panes of glass looking into an enormous room. In the middle hung a small cube and a single man sat at a table reading, Magneto. Richard could recognize him from the news video's from the train station. His hair was combed neatly and he was in a white prison jump suit. Though Richard couldn't see Eric's face, he could've sworn Eric looked a hell of a lot older than he did in the news clip from the station.   
  
"Mr. Lauren, you'll be first. If you'll please come with me." Mr. Dodson and Mr. Waynes led Stephen around the bend in the room and Richard followed just up to the elbow. He watched a cop push a button and a plastic tube, suspended from the ceiling by numerous poles, was extended and connected to Magneto's cell. Eric closed his book and set it aside while he watched the men gather at the other end. The cop collected Stephen's gun and everything else that had metal. Stephen ended up leaving his belt, all his pens (he was lent a pencil by the policeman), his tie clip, even his notebook with the metal rings joining the pages together, and all his pocket change and keys, in a plastic tray that made stephen think of his mother's cookie sheets. The police officer accompanied the three of them into the cell. Richard noticed that none of the cops had guns down here, they had black batons slung to their belts that must have been made out of a super hard plastic.   
  
Richard watched patiently while Stephen spoke with Eric. On a couple of occasions he grinned when the lawyer interrupted Stephen. For the first time, Richard wondered to himself how plausible it might be to use poison. It was obvious that it would be next to impossible to get a crosshair on Magneto while he was in here, but maybe poison or gas. Would it be possible to activate the furnace and burn him? Richard looked around for what might be the emergency furnace controls. He turned to the nearest police officer, "I hear they can scorch the room with the flick of a switch. He must be considered pretty damn dangerous eh?"  
  
The cop looked amused, "No, unfortunately the judge decided that leaving such a device intact is too big a risk for a man who isn't condemned to death. Sorry, a mutant not condemned to death." The cop spat out that last bit obviously regretting he didn't have control of the red button that would burn Magneto into a crispy critter. "Before he was brought here, the furnace was taken apart, to prevent accidental activation."  
  
Oh well, that would've been too easy anyways. Another thought struck Richard right away, "Is it safe for Mr. Lauren to leave his belongings in that tray?" To this the cop just shrugged and replied half heartedly, "We've had some scientists study him a couple of days back. They figured that his powers are limited to a range of eighty five feet, or something close to that."   
  
A flurry of movement caught Richard's eye and he looked back at the cell. The cop beside him swore loudly and hit a large button activating an alarm bell that hurt Richard's ears. Mr. Waynes and the cop that walked into the cell were laying on the ground in an expanding pool of blood, and both Stephen and Mr. Dodson were standing very upright, as if guns were being held to their heads. Though Richard couldn't see what was going on. Magneto started walking down the plastic tube and Stephen and Frank led the way, the same way a hostage would walk in front of a loaded rifle. Richard watched in stunned amazement as Magneto was led out of the tube by the two men.   
  
The cops grabbed out their sticks and their supervisor shouted for them to back down. As the three of them stepped out of the plastic tube Richard could see about a dozen tiny silver discs floating around the two men. Richard couldn't quite figure out what they were, but it should have been obvious to him. The three of them passed a cop who stood with his back flat against a wall, sweating bricks. When they had crossed him, the cop raised his stick and charged Magneto. Eric swung one of his outstreched hands back towards the cop and two of the floating discs fired straight into the cops right eye, punching deep into his head. There was no blood at first, and the cop just collapsed to the ground, his body twitching in convulsions. Stephen tried to take advantage of Magneto's distraction and brought his fist around smacking the old man in the back of the head. Three of the discs sought out soft parts in Stephens head and dived straight in, one into each of his ears and one in his left eye. Blood sprayed out of Stephens ears, and he spun himself around convulsively and fell onto his side.   
  
Richard stood dumbfounded, and none of the other cops tried to get in Magneto's way as he led his hostage into one of the elevators and closed the door. As soon as the door closed, other cops immediately ran to the other elevators and Richard heard them talking into the intercoms frantically. Richard still couldn't quite piece together where Magneto had gotten those little circles from. He bent down to Stephen and checked his pulse even though he knew he was as dead as a man could be. Richard looked down Stephens body and stopped when he saw his shoes, suddenly he knew where Magneto got his lethal weapons from. Stephen always wore fancy leather shoes with thick soles. Those shoes also had very shiny metal loops where the laces would tie the shoe up. All the laces were ripped up where the metal loops had torn themselves from the leather. Richard couldn't help but commend Eric's resourcefulness. The smell of blood was starting to seep into the air, but Richard could also smell something else that didn't fit with blood or sweat. He looked around where Stephen had fallen and saw a puddle of urine on the floor nearby, apparently Mr. Lensherr's attorney had wet himself.  
  
Richard stood up and recollected his senses. The cops were busy climbing into the three open elevators and Richard quickly squeezed himself into one of them. They didn't seem to notice. The cops poured out into the main lobby and Richard followed with the mass. Three soldiers were dead, it looked like they were shot with their own guns which were hovering behind Magneto as he walked with Mr. Dodson leading him out of the building. Now he had two more soldiers with their own rifles sticking into their backs.   
  
Richard watched through the glass doors and Magneto rose up into the sky. He was about to run outside to see where he was going, but his mind shifted gears and he ran back into the elevator he came out of. A key was still in it's slot and Richard hit the unmarked button. The door slid open and Richard ran to the little bowl that held Stephen's pocket change. Richard scooped up his keys and left the building.   
  
The entire complex was in turmoil and Richard could hear helicoptors warming up for take off. He couldn't help but laugh at how futile it would be to try to apprehend Magneto again, he would twist those helicoptors into pretzels. Richard didn't have any trouble leaving the complex, the gaurds just shooed him out and Stephen drove back to New York as fast as he could. Meanwhile, the military base looked like an anthill that was just stepped on. Soldiers and police officers scurried around, spoke into their radios, and generally didn't accomplish anything constructive. As for Magneto, Richard couldn't see him anywhere in the sky, the bastard was gone. Richard had no idea where Magneto was going exactly, but he had an idea of how to find out.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Richard knew that he would be contacted for questioning, but fortunately for him, they would be trying to contact him up in Calgary, which suited him just fine. Now, however, he had to figure out where Magneto's secret lair was hidden. He knew that's where Magneto would go, and gather up the rest of his 'Brotherhood'. Although it was a secret hideout, Richard knew that Senator Kelly was kidnapped by Magneto and brought there a little over a month ago, and it was during this time that Kelley had made his drastic political change on the mutant registration act. Eric must be an incredibly pursuasive man. Fortunately, Richard knew he wouldn't be the only person looking for Magneto, or the only person who would know of Magneto's break out. Richard had a strong hunch he would be crossing paths with the X Men again, and in this case sooner would be better than later.   
  
But now Richard had to find out where the X Men hung out. For this Richard put a wire back to Nemesis, surely that man would know. Richard hung up the phone after leaving his request on Nemesis's voice mail and put on a pot of coffee. The phone rang and it startled Richard, surely that bastard wouldn't be phoning back already with the information. He picked up the receiver, "Hello?"  
  
"Hello, may I speak with Mr. Freyes please?"  
  
"This is he." It wasn't Nemesis, it sounded like a bank trying to pawn off another credit card.  
  
"Mr. Freyes, I am phoning to inform you that most of the hardware you have ordered has come in and is ready for pick up. I am also to inform you that I expect the last piece in three days. We will let you know when it's in."  
  
Wow, that was exceptionally fast. "Thanks."  
  
"I don't need to inform you of the place. But you are expected to collect tonight at 8:30."  
  
"No problem, I'll be there."  
  
"Have a good day Mr. Freyes." The phone clicked off before he could answer back. Richard checked his watch, it was seven now, and it won't take him fifteen minutes to get to the warehouse. He already had paid them in advance so he didn't have to worry about suitcases full of unmarked bills, and that suited Richard just fine as well. He never liked how tense suppliers could get when they felt they had to check all the bills before they let you go. Oh well, it's only business Richard had reminded himself more than once. But the fear of being shot instead of getting his gear wasn't very real when dealing with 'The Supplier'. Nobody fucked around with him, and it was so tough to get in touch with him in the first place, the supplier knew he had filtered out only trustworthy clients.   
  
Richard drank his coffee and left for the warehouse.  
  
  
That night ran it's routine and within only half an hour Richard had collected over half his stock and was already back at his apartment sorting through the unmarked cardboard box. He had to sift through those styrofoam puffs that are used to pack VCR's and TV's, but instead of a TV Richard found a large steel ammunition box inside. It wasn't locked and in no time Richard had his rifle spread across the table (in about a dozen pieces mind you), a box of fifty rounds, a synthetic combat knife, and a stealth suit that adjusted his temperature to match the room and refracted sonar and night vision effectively making him invisible to those forms of surveillance.  
  
Excellent.  
  
The phone rang.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
The computerized cyborg voice was unmistakable, "Hello Richard. I have the information you requested, but I'm curious as to why you want to find the X Men."  
  
"You already know that Eric broke out of prison today don't you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, I know you don't know where his hideout is, but I know the X Men will be looking for it now. I need to find out from them."  
  
"Clever. Although I don't know how you will get the information from them, I'm also not going to ask. It's one of my pleasures to watch my employee's come up with creative ways to complete their objectives. I know that this complicates any plans you have, so I will give you a two month extension to complete your mission." Richard was surprised that the computer voice managed to convey a mild form of sympathy. He also decided that Nemesis sounded alot like those cyborg's from that Star Trek movie with the bald captain, he could never remember his name.  
  
"Thank you, it's muchly appreciated. But I expect I'll be able to finish this in it's regular time slot."  
  
"I will be impressed if you do. Have a good night Richard."  
  
"You, too." The line clicked off, Richard never hung up first, just in case Nemesis decided to have a change of mind and add one final note to the conversation. He flipped up the screen on his laptop and connected to his Email. Sure enough there was a message from Nemesis with the X Men's address. Apparently they hang out in a private school for gifted student's, with a man named Charles Xavier at it's head. The name rung a bell with Richard but he couldn't quite place it, oh well it didn't matter.   
  
Oh shit it did matter! Charles Xavier is probably the only known mutant more powerful than Magneto, he's the cripple who can read men's thoughts and control their minds. Richard cursed under his breath. This ruled out just being able to play the cop routine. That meant he'd have to sneak onto their jet somehow. But what if the old bastard decided to go with the X Men when they went after Magneto? This was assuming they even did go after Magneto, they might just wait for him to strike again. Too many variables.   
  
Richard decided that he had to go to the school one way or another. It was just outside of New York, well at least that was convenient enough. Tomorrow he'd go and scope out the school, then once he had all his equipment he would go talk to someone there who would know, he'd just have to make sure he didn't encounter Xavier. He must leave the school at some point, Richard was sure that even mutants took vacations from defending the world at some point. But the new challenge was how to find out. Richard was sure that Xavier wouldn't publish his travelling plans in the New Yorker. The only way to find out would be to get in the school, get into the computers? Hell, if he got in the computers he wouldn't have to bother wasting time with Xavier's travel plans, he could just find out if they knew where Magneto was hiding. Would it be possible to hack in through the net? It was worth a shot. But not now, Richard would have to go in through a different terminal. If they had a jet that couldn't be picked up by news crews and their camera's, then surely they'd have a trace program in their computers. Well, Richard was exceptionally skilled with computers and he believed that if there was a way to hack into the X network through the net, he could find a way. If not, he'd just get into the school itself. When face to face with any terminal, there was always a way to get the information one looked for.   
  
Richard poured himself a cup of coffee and sat back down in front of his equipment and continued his inspections, at this point it was more for fun than to check it's quality. He went to bed early that night, he had a busy day ahead of him.   
  
  
The road's were still relatively empty, however empty they would ever get in the New York city area. It was only four in the morning and Richard was starting to think that he should've drank just one more cup of coffee, or maybe seven more. A map was open on the passenger seat and Richard had highlighted the roads that led to Xavier's school. The back seat was covered with enough wires and computer bits that it struck Richard that it's contents were probably worth more than his car. All of that was hardware to put up another IP address to prevent the X Men's inevitable computer security programs from being able to trace him, as well as a cellular modem so he could connect from his car just outside the building. It still seemed to be a doubtful proposition to Richard but he had to give it a shot. If it failed he had a suit in a plastic dry cleaning back in the back of his car and he could just go and visit the school itself. If it came to that however, Richard would end up camping in his car until the early morning hours again before he'd try to break in and have a peak at their computers. For that, Richard had packed a black jump suit with necessary cat burglar gadgets in the compartment where the spare tire once rested.   
  
Only once before did Richard have to break in someplace to get information before attempting the mark, and it went successfully well. Richard was following a man (this was before he was hunting mutants) named Frank Buntaro. Frank was an oriental businessman who had the bad luck of witnessing a mob shoot-out and saw clearly who was involved. Fortunately for Frank, because he was such a successful businessman he had professional security around at all times, among the best, which prevented the mob from just sending a hit man to take out the only key witness in their upcoming trial. Unfortunately for Frank, his security wasn't able to deal with Richard.  
  
Frank was going back to Japan with the intention of laying low for a while and hoping that the mob wouldn't follow him across the Atlantic, after all the trial was still months away. Well, no mob hitmen followed Frank. Richard had to break into a bank to find out where Frank's home bank account was located in Japan (Richard swore he would never meet another man who kept his home address so secret as Frank Buntaro, until of course, he met Nemesis). The break in was as clean as Richard could've hoped for, they never new he was in there. It struck Richard how frequently it seemed that he got his ideas from movies and books, and this one had more than one resemblance to that movie where Sean Connery and that hot english woman were cat burglers trying to set each other up to be busted by the fuzz (Richard also seemed to be completely unable to remember the names of more than half a dozen movies he had seen in the last ten years.).   
  
Richard had purchased four telescoping poles that connected to a window and cement it was mounted into. Then he had a tiny laser cutting torch to sever the window's connection to the building. Richard ran the laser all around the rim of the window and the poles extended making a three foot gap as it pulled the glass away from the bank. Richard knew that this particular bank didn't have any trip laser alarms, but it did have heat sensitive camera's and motion sensors. The camera's Richard dealt with by wearing a cold suit, not unlike the temperature matching suit he had bought to deal with Magneto, and he crawled low on his belly as the particular motion sensors in this bank were the type that only worked til about two feet off the ground, motion below that didn't register. When Richard reached a bank computer (which he was assured, by a bribed security officer in the mall the bank was connected to, would be left on), he raised himself just enough to see the screen, and even then he only got up on his knees so slowly that if anyone had seen him, they may have casually mistaken him for a fixed statue. The difficulty that the motion sensors presented was that the typing on the keyboard of moving the mouse could send them off, the way Richard knew to get past was by making his movements so slow that the sensors wouldn't register them as movement at all. This made an operation that would normally take a professional less than five minutes in and out of the bank last nearly twenty minutes. Richard got out of the bank and replaced the window, using a very special invisible adhesive at the normal joints to make the glass stick back into the building, and the next day he was on a plane to Tokyo.   
  
In the end it didn't prove very difficult to find Frank and follow him back to his home, Richard waited at Frank's bank where he had some business to deal with, then followed him around downtown Tokyo for six hours until he finally went home. That night Richard picked the lock (which actually consisted of a card reader Richard forged), and crept into Frank's bedroom. Frank wasn't the only one in his bed tonight, and so far as Richard knew this wasn't planned as Frank wasn't married and Richard didn't see him wine and dine any young ladies that night. During his brief moment of hesitation he heard the creak of the floor boards behind him, someone had seen him and a gun was already pointed at his back, and here in Japan was the end of Richard Freyes rather promising career. The gun shot never came and Richard didn't bother to tempt fate by waiting to find out why. Richard spun around and saw a man in the shadows holding a stick in one hand trying to sneak up and bash him in the back of the skull. The blood was pumping through Richard's ears and he was sweating much more than he would normally allow himself too while on a job, but this time he couldn't help it. The man he was trying to kill was rich, and his house portrayed that in every way, wonderful scents from flowers, paintings that Richard couldn't make out in the dark, and a silk house coat slung over a chair by the bed. And now Richard was face to face with what he figured was a fifty thousand dollar a year live in body guard who would have absolutely no problems with bashing Richard's skull in first and asking questions later. The man was shorter than him but Richard could tell he was well built even though the darkness of the hall shadowed any real details. The body gaurd stopped and stared at Richard, probably surprised, that moments hesitation was all Richard needed.   
  
The pistol swung it's barrel around to Frank's body gaurd and raised itself slightly. To Richard it seemed like the air he was swinging his gun through had turned to syrup and surely the guard would leap toward him and bring the club down on his head before he could get off one shot. But the guard just stood there and let Richard fire two rounds right into his chest. The man didn't make a noise, he just stood there for a moment and fell to his knees making a quite thump when they hit the carpet. Richard could tell the man was staring at him through the darkness and at that moment he didn't want that man staring at him at all, as if the man would steal his soul and suck the blood from his body with his dying gaze. Richard stared back, becoming more unsettled knowing this man was branding Richard with his last living moments, not bothering to check his wounds or call for help or even bother pleading for his life, just staring at Richard marking him. Probably so the man could find Richard in hell and pay him back when Richard's time came. Finally the man fell back and his arms splayed out to his sides. So far as Richard could tell he was dead, he would double check before he left. Richard let out a breath and he realized he was holding it ever since he heard the creak of the floor behind him. He turned back towards the man and woman sleeping peacefully (she was probably just a hired thrill to relieve the stress of being part of a mob trial), undisturbed with the demise of their security. The soft soled boots didn't make a sound on the carpet and Richard walked right up to the foot of the bed. The woman stirred in her sleep and turned over throwing the blanket off her revealing her breasts to Richard. The man rolled over and put his arm around her, then stopped. Richard watched Frank turn his head and stare right at Richard. Once again his breathing stopped and Richard hesitated one moment too long. Frank shot out of bed screaming in japanese, probably at the guard Richard just killed. The woman sat up in a confused muddle and didn't understand what was going on. Richard noticed that the man was going for a handgun which fell off his bedside table as he jump up. All the screaming and confused speach from the two of them seemed to be drowned out by the two muffled bangs of Richard's gun as he fired directly into Frank's back while he fumbled with his gun. Frank lurched, as the bullets carried through and punched holes into the floor, and flipped over onto his back looking at Richard with wide pleading eyes. In the dark it seemed like Frank's face just dissapeared, but Richard could see the shadow's of the former businessman's brains sliding down the side of his bed and sprayed all over the carpet. At this point the woman he was sleeping with clued in and began to scream. Panic had completely overtaken her and she just sat on the bed screaming into the night staring at Richard. The blanket had since been completely thrown off her and from where Richard stood nothing was left to the imagination. The gun was brought around and Richard fired a single shot which punched a hole right through her neck abruptly cutting off her ongoing soprano cry. She stared disbelieving at Richard, clutching her throat gasping for air. Richard could see blood running out from under her hands and sliding down between her perky breasts. He always found it odd how he remembered how hard her nipples seemed in the last few moments of her life.  
Richard decided he didn't want to watch her clutch at her throat and gasp voicelessly for another ten minutes so he fired another shell which struck her right above her right eye. Her body seemed to fly off the bed and fall out of Richard's site, the only thing remaining was a dark shaded spray of blood on the headboard of Frank's impressive bed.   
  
As Richard left he remembered a sudden impulse to see the gaurd he had killed so he switched on the hall light for a brief moment and his heart sank. The gaurd he killed was only a boy, no older than sixteen, the club that Richard figured was going to be used to dash his brains was a plastic flashlight which would have shattered if swung hard enough at Richard. He killed a sixteen year old kid who was now laying on a carpet soaked with his own blood, and a woman who's brains were all over the pillow she had her orgasm on less than five hours earlier, and neither probably knew any of what Frank had unwittingly seen back in America. Life's a bitch and then you die, some people more abruptly than others.  
  
Richard decided that he didn't want to deal with these memories while he drove on to Xavier's school. Yeah okay, I'll take these memories away, but while were driving why don't I talk to you some more about them. The kid was probably only heading to the bathroom for a piss when he saw you. The woman sleeping in the afterglow of rockin' sex and you killed both of them for your paycheck. Richard turned on the radio and for the remainder of the drive, he managed to successfully think of nothing but that ill fated trip to Japan.   
  
As the sun was rising, Richard's chevette came around the bend on the forest lined road and saw the stone wall marking the edge of Xavier's property. An iron plaque mounted next to the gate declared that this was   
X  
Xavier's School for Talented Youngsters.   
Est. 1953  
  
The gate was locked and another sign lower down told Richard that the school didn't open for another two and a half hours. That gave him plenty of time to set up his computer and try to hack his way in.   
  
  
Setting up the computer and the extra software took longer than Richard expected, but not too long that someone might come out of the school and see a white chevette with a computer set up on the passenger seat with a two thousand dollar satellite modem pointed directly at the school. The computer connected quite successfully with the school's network, but only the public websites that were set up for normal net viewing. It didn't take long for Richard to realize it was a complete lost cause to try to hack in online. Well to tell the truth, Richard didn't have much choice after ten minutes of getting down to business.   
  
Richard started with a program to get the IP address of the server computer the X Men were using to connect online, and that worked just fine. Once Richard had the IP address he sent a highly modified trojan program that was disguised as an Email which would open itself once accepted into the target computer and immediately make a connection between the host and the target. It was a simple method, but the software cost Richard seven thousand dollars and worked on everything. Until now.  
  
When Richard sent the bugged Email his computer screen went blank, a moment later all the power shut down. Richard restarted the laptop he bought specifically for this purpose only to find out it's harddrive completely erased, except for a message which appeared on his screen. It was a simple text message in white which read, "Your computer has been cleaned and a subsequent program installed into your hardrive which has irreperably damaged your ram and modem hardware. This has happened as a result of an illegal attempt to network with a target computer, consider this a warning."  
  
Richard just stared at his screen for fifteen minutes, too shocked to even swear. Eventually he just turned the power off and dissasembled the computer set up packing it under a blanket in the back seat of his chevette. He then got his suit out of his trunk and changed right in the middle of the road. The school opened in half an hour, but Richard started his car and drove off to look for a cafe for breakfast. Tonight Richard would break into Xavier's school and continue his hunt for Magneto. His stomach cramped up at that moment as a line from his dream came back to him, the young girl calling out "No Men Allowed." Only this time, he thought of the young japanese boy he killed. No men allowed to live. Or women for that matter.   
  
Richard started thinking of how he would get into the school this afternoon, then breaking in later that evening, and ultimately resulting in his next paycheck.  



	5. Part 5

You've all read the disclaimers from the other parts, same deal here. This is a short file, sorry. It is may be a couple of weeks before I get a new part online because I'm going away on vacation. But I will put up a big new chunks as soon as I possibly can. Thanks for holding out.  
  
Chapter 9  
  
Richard found a little restaurant half an hour away from the school and ate a greasy breakfast of bacon and eggs. After he was done his stomach was ready to lead an armed revolt at the garbage Richard gorged on. He managed to suppress it with a few cups of coffee and mess load of promises never to do that again. He left the Village cafe and walked to a used book store to pass some more time. Richard didn't want to be sitting at the front gates waiting for them to open, if he waited a bit the chances of running into Charles would greatly deminish. As he walked across the street Richard caught the headline on the day's paper, 'Senator Kelley to run for Presidency'. Richard fed fifty cents into the vender and grabbed a paper. Ever since Kelley was kidnapped by 'The Brotherhood' and taken to the hideout, Richard had taken a real interest in Kelley's new political views and decided he would make a passive attempt to read between the lines to see his new political goals. The Presidency was a good goal alright, but with this apparent sympathy for mutants, Kelley will have a tough time against the tougher political candidates.   
  
The book store held few interests for Richard that day, he was too distracted on what he would scope out on his initial visit to the school. First thing he'd have to find was a computer terminal. When logged on the first thing he'd want to hack into would be the profile for Eric Lensherr. See if they had his hideout's location for him to steal. Then he'd want to find their jet. Richard knew that would be extremely difficult so he would be content just to get on one of their computers. He looked down at his watch and decided it would be safe to go pay a visit to the school now.   
  
Richard was surprised to see how busy the school looked after being open for an hour. People were walking all over the gardens and parks that made up the front lawn of the building. Richard parked his car and climbed out, smoothing a wrinkle in his suit jacket as he did so. He glanced at himself briefly at his door mirror and decided he looked like a very professional businessman. Although it seemed there was a pretty good stream of traffic in and out of the school as well, Richard's fears of sticking out like a sore thumb began to dissipate. He patted the pistol in it's shoulder harness underneath his jacket just to be sure. Never leave home without it.  
  
Richard grabbed a suitcase from his car and closed his door. He began walking towards the school and glanced at a few students who were sitting in the shade of a tree on the lawn. One of them was lying on her stomach, but she wasn't quite lying on it, Richard smiled to himself when he realized she was hovering about a foot off the lawn, just chatting away to the other two sitting with her. A boy was standing on the surface of the water in the fountain running alongside the sidewalk Richard was walking down. The boy looked at Richard then turned towards a young girl and continued talking with her. Richard walked past a familiar looking face, a young man, well in his thirties but younger than Richard, nodded at Richard. He was wearing a pair of red sunglasses, but it struck Richard that the glasses weren't just red tinted, the lenses seemed to be made of solid gemstone, ruby. Richard realized he just walked past one of the X Men from the statue, the guy who was wearing the goggles. Richard was just nodded at by one of the mutants Richard was spying on just a few weeks ago. He couldn't help but shudder a bit.   
  
The school itself was impressive. Ivy clung to the sides and reached up the cement walls giving the building a distinct British university feel. The main doors were well polished oak with an X in a circle carved into each. Richard fell in love with the main lobby as soon as he stepped in. The walls were obviously real wood and the red carpeting gave a distinctly royal feel to the entire place. Tapestries and paintings (probably originals too) hung from the walls, and thick wooden pillars lined the hallways. Students and adults walked every which way, class probably hadn't started yet. Richard noticed young kids for the first time, they were just as plentiful as any of the older students in this school, what type of university is this? Surely not all mutants were geniuses of university level, or maybe only the geniuses got into Xavier's school. It didn't matter. What did matter was that no one seemed to notice Richard, and he liked that. As he stood in the middle of the lobby looking at the people swarm around him, Richard didn't notice a man standing in a corner watching him, in fact the man was sent to watch him by Xavier.   
  
Richard turned down a hallway and came across an expansive library. It was open and people, children and adults, streamed in and out. Richard noticed computer terminals and walked in. Richard didn't bother approaching the front counter but just stood near the computers waiting for one to open up. Almost immediately, a young man with a pimple studded nose got up from his terminal and Richard sat down before the kid was out of site. Pimpleboy, as Richard thought of him, didn't bother to log off, granting Richard an unknown blessing, since you couldn't log onto a library computer without an assigned username and password. Richard immediately logged onto Xavier's school's website and pulled a disk out of his jacket. He put the disk in and ran the program it contained. He waited patiently while the status bar of his 'log on' program continued it's slow crawl of progression, and this time he did notice a man watching him from between a pair of bookshelves. The man was a big and Richard didn't doubt that he was school security or something along those lines. It was odd that the man's hair was so unkempt and he seemed to have three day old stubble on his face, if he was in an official staff position Richard assumed he would've had to keep tidy. Maybe it was a mutation that his hair was as tough as steel. Richard giggled at that thought and decided he wouldn't bother looking for the jet. Besides, it seemed his log on program worked this time. Immediately, Richard began a search on Eric Lensherr, and in no time he had a file open displaying the biography, stats, known powers, everything there was to know about Eric. Well almost everything. The file made a specific point of telling the reader that Eric Lensherr's current whereabouts after his great escape is currently unknown. There was also nothing on his hideout. But, Richard decided the file had some great technical spec's on Eric's powers and other useful information so he decided to save the file onto his disk.   
  
As soon as the transfer was done Richard popped the disk out of the computer and put it in his jacket. He looked back up and didn't see the watching man anywhere around, then a hand came down on his shoulder and gripped him tight. Richard knew it was man from the bookshelves. He spoke quietly in Richard's ear, his voice intense and not quite a whisper. The stench of cigar was very clear to Richard.  
  
"Hey bub, mind telling me what your doin' here?"  
  
Richard stood up and turned around. The man was a few inches shorter than him, but looked like he could bench press trucks. He was wearing a brown leather jacket and blue jeans. Richard decided he was a plain clothes school cop.   
  
"I was just taking a look at the school. I have a gifted friend but she was too scared to come herself so I came in her stead. So far as I can tell, it's a remarkable place you got here."  
  
"Sure, why don't you come with me. We have something to discuss."  
  
Richard knew his story wouldn't hold up. He considered shooting the man, but knew he couldn't do it now. Richard was standing too close to him to even attempt to draw his gun, and the man looked like he wouldn't wait for a better excuse to rip off Richard's head and shit down his neck. But he had to know who this was for future reference.  
  
"Would you mind telling me who you are to accost me like this?"  
  
"My name's Logan, and you can consider me campus security. Now you can come along easy, or I can take you. Kickin' or not it won't matter to me."  
  
Richard raised his hands defensively, "Hold on, I'm not trying to be smart, I'll come with you Mr. Logan."  
  
"Mind handing over that disk you put in your pocket?"   
  
Richard's stomach lurched, he couldn't afford to lose this information, and now he decided that he wouldn't be coming back here as long as he could help it. The security here was much tighter than he first imagined.   
  
"Hold on, that's just stuff I got off the net and some personal files."  
  
"Yeah sure bub, hand over the disk and I'll decide to let you leave breathin'."  
  
Richard got the disk out of his pocket and looked at it for a second, then handed it over to Logan. He noticed Logan's hands were very coarse, it almost looked like the bones were extra thick for extra ass kicking. These guys definately picked the right man to deter crime. Logan slipped the disk into his jacket pocket and walked Richard back towards the main lobby. Richard noticed the hallway cleared out amazingly quickly and realized that first class must be starting. The two men walked into the main lobby and Logan turned Richard away from the main door. The main lobby was completely empty and Richard decided he couldn't afford to be brought in front of Xavier, to whom Logan was undoubtedly taking him.  
  
Richard's foot caught a snag in the carpet and he intentionally fell over. Logan looked more annoyed and just looked around. While Richard was still on his hands he pulled the gun out from inside his jacket.   
  
"Hey, get the hell up." Anger was seething in Logan's voice.  
  
"Sorry, twisted my ankle. I'm alright though, don't concern yourself."   
  
Richard quickly rolled onto his back and fired twice into Logan's stomach. Blood streamed from Logan as he fell backwards.   
  
"MOTHER FUCKER!" Logan screamed out. Richard shot up to his feet and Logan rolled over on his stomach. The exit wounds were both large enough to fit baseballs into, and Richard fired twice more into Logan's back, and Logan laid still on the rug moaning and cursing quietly. Richard turned tail and began running straight for the main door, he reached the large oak door and Logan's voice stopped him just as he opened it. It was loud and strong, and most importantly, Richard could hear Logan standing up again.  
  
"Hey you son of a bitch, where the fuck do you think your goin'?"  
  
Richard turned around and Logan was walking back towards him and Richard stared wide eyed as the holes in Logan's stomach dissapeared, leaving unscarred flesh. Richard didn't waste any moments this time, he brough his gun up again and fired. At firing ranges Richard was never exceptional when crack firing a handgun, in fact he wasn't nearly as good as most assasins were. Richard had managed to successfully avoid firefights completely, and he even considered himself lucky that he managed to land every bullet into Frank and his hired fluff. When posed in a stressful situation where every second counted, Richard usually went wide, and this time was no exception. Richard fired three shots in rapid succession as he held the gun in both hands. The first two shots went wide and struck a wooden pillar and a window at the end of the lobby. The third shot struck Logan right in the forehead with a loud pang of metal, and Logan fell back to the ground clutching his forehead.  
  
"You son of a BITCH! THAT FUCKING HURT!"  
  
Richard was speachless, he looked down at Logan's feet and saw the bullet sitting on the carpet and watched Logan get back up to his feet and stare at Richard with burning eyes. A large patch of flesh was stripped from Logan's forehead revealing gleaming metal, but not for long as the flesh rapidly grew back covering up the steel plate in his skull. Richard didn't wait a moment longer, he was out of the school before Logan began moving again.   
  
Outside some of the braver students were slowly approaching the school to investigate the gun shots, but they scattered when Richard burst out. Richard ran back to the parking lot and looked over at a trio of girls standing by a tree watching him run by. Richard lost his breath when he noticed one of the girls, a young pretty face in a blue sweater that was completely familiar to him. A reaccuring thought came back to Richard just then, No men allowed and he realized he saw the girl in his dream.   
  
Richard dared a glance back and wasn't surprised to see Logan running after him, and gaining. He sprinted to his car and fumbled the keys out of his pocket at the same time. Richard slammed the door shut and started the engine at the same time. In his panic he slammed the stick into reverse and stalled the car trying to pull out of it's spot. He could see Logan's fury as the mutant ran at the car. Richard started the car again and his transmission gave a loud reproachful grind as Richard slammed it back into reverse and zipped out of the spot. He sideswiped a cadillac on his right and Logan leapt at the hood of Richard's Chevette. Richard heard the sound of a sword being drawn and realized that Logan now had large metal claws sticking out of the tops of each hand. Logan sank a claw into the grill of Richard's car, then Richard spun the wheel and Logan was dragged sideways as the car turned itself around. Richard backed into the same cadillac and slammed the stick into first gear and floored the gas pedal. He felt the front wheel bump over something and Richard let out a breath as he realized he just ran over Logan. He watched the rearview mirror in anticipation of the mangled body, but when no body appeared did he look forward again. The white chevette made a little squeal as it took to the main road outside Xavier's school property line. Richard's heart leapt into his throat when he saw one of Logan's clawed hands punch into the top of his hood. It was followed by another, and then both claws pulled Logan's snarling face into view. Logan mouthed some words at Richard, but he couldn't tell what they were, but he was sure he knew the general meaning.   
  
Richard swerved down the road trying to shake Logan off, but the claws jutting from his forearms wouldn't loose themselves from the white hood. Logan climbed up and brought a set of claws into the windshield. He then twisted his hand and pulled a large chunk of glass towards him causing it to shatter leaving a large hole big enough to fit a watermelon in front of Richard's face. Logan raised his claw again and grinned as he prepared to thrust it into Richard's face. Richard slammed on the brakes and Logan lost his grip. Logan's left claw kept it's hold in Richard's hood, but the force of the stop caused the claw to carve deeper into the hood as Logan fell back off the hood. Logan immediately began pulling himself back up again and Richard hit the gas causing another stumble, this time towards the windshield. When Logan got himself squatting on Richard's hood again, he glared through the hole in the glass and spoke in his raspy, intense voice.  
  
"Alright bub, I ain't playing anymore games with you."  
  
"That's alright, neither am I." Richard replied and raised his handgun and pointed it right at Logan's face. He pulled the trigger over and over again, the sound of the gun hurting Richard's ears as the bang echoed through the car. Logan's head whipsawed back as the bullets pummeled into his head with repeated, metallic clangs. Richard stopped firing and his jaw dropped when he saw Logan's face. Most of the flesh had been stripped off his forehead and Logan's right eye was a bloody hole. Logan's left cheek was mostly torn off and Richard could see that Logan's entire skull was gleaming metal. Richard thought Logan looked too much like the Terminator at that particular moment for his own comfort. The flesh began repairing itself and Richard stared slack jawed watching Logan's eye begin pulling itself back together. Richard was lucky that the particular stretch of road he was on ran straight for over six miles, or else he would have driven headlong into a tree probably killing himself. Logan would have survived of course, but as it was the road didn't turn so Richard lapse of attention wasn't punished.   
  
A leaf flew through the windshield and covered one of Richard's eyes, that snapped his attention back to the present. He tore the leaf off his face and brought his gun back up again and stuck it through the hole in the window. Logan's face began to resemble something living again, the sinews in his cheek stretching across the jaw and pulling flesh together. Logan's eye glossed over and Richard could see the iris growing behind the glassy lense. Richard fired his gun again, but only one shell came out before the chamber latched open and clicked telling Richard the gun was empty. Fortunately that one shell was all he needed. The bullet struck Logan right in his throat and Richard thought of the woman in Frank's bed. Richard's hood was sprayed with blood and Logan fell on top of the hood, his claws pulling themselves into his hand. Richard slammed on the brakes again and this time Logan fell off the hood completely. Richard hit the gas right away and felt a satisfying thump under the car as he rolled right over Logan. This time he saw the body in his rearview mirror, and for a fleeting moment Richard wondered if he actually killed him. Thick tendrils of smoke bellowed out behind the car and the noise became almost deafening. It was as if there was no muffler on Richard's car. He then saw the distant shape of Logan stand up slowly, the tattered remains of his coat draped around his shoulders, and hold something in his hand to display to Richard. He realized that it was his muffler. The fucker tore off his muffler at the same time as he was being run over!  
  
Richard looked ahead of himself and set his jaw. After all was said and done, Richard didn't manage to accomplish anything except ruin his car, he didn't even have the disk. So he just went home.  
  
To be continued...  
  
Don't worry, I'm not done this yet. I am just going to try to deal with real life a bit (vacation to family, but I will write while I'm out there) then post up to date when I return. Please keep reviewing because I love seeing new reviews, even if their bad. Email me if you really liked the story and I'll be glad to write back to you. 


	6. Part 6

Disclaimer: You've all read this before.  
  
I'm back from my vacation so here you all go. Enjoy. SPOON!!!!  
  
Chapter 10  
  
It would only be a matter of time til the X Men decided to look into what Richard was doing at their school looking at classified materials. Richard could only hope the disk was destroyed when he ran over Logan. Oh well, there was nothing that could be done about it now. Richard knew he'd have to figure out another way to find Magneto, but who else had been to his base? The sun beat down on the empty highway, and dust flew through the destroyed windshield. Richard squinted against the grit as he manouvered his hiccoughing car and reflected on what an unpleasant way it was to finish an ill-fated espionage attempt. The car lurched forward and made a sound like rocks were being run through the pistons instead of gasoline. Smoke began to bellow from under the hood, and among the many acrid scents Richard recognized the smell of evaporating coolant. The chevette continued to jump and jolt, and Richard decided his trusty tin bucket had seen it's last day.  
  
He managed to get the car off the road before it stalled completely, and the cloud it bellowed completely engulfed the battered chevette. Richard got out of the car and kicked the door hard enough to leave a large dent in the panel. The hood wouldn't quite open, even after Richard pulled on the release lever hard enough to yank the plastic handle right off its wire chord. Richard got his toolkit out from the back of his now defunct vehicle and found his hammer and brought it around to the hood. The hood gave a good arguement on how it didn't want to open, Logan saw to that, but Richard was able to deform the light metal more than enough to open it; however, when he tried to lift the joints wouldn't work. Richard braced himself, and threw his entire weight into lifting the hood. He could hear the metal crunch as one of the hinges on the hood was torn right out of the car. The white painted metal plate in Richard's hands was so deformed that most people wouldn't recognize it as any piece from a car.   
  
Richard tossed the hood into the ditch and waved his hands at the smoke rising from the cars guts in a futile attempt to clear it faster. The engine was a complete mess. A piston was jutting out of the side of it's chamber, the air filter was cut into three pieces, and the radiator had numerous holes punched into it from the grill. Logan's final farewell, Richard thought. Looking around, Richard wasn't close to any real civilization. He decided he'd call a truck and just take the car to a scrap yard. Besides, he was sitting on enough money: it was time to upgrade. He considered perhaps a Ford Tempo.  
  
Richard called Ajax towing and the woman told him the truck would be about an hour. He didn't want to wait that long so he just unscrewed the license plate and put it in his suitcase. Richard was getting ready to thumb a ride when he looked in his backseat and swore under his breath. The computer equipment which made it's short lived attempt to hack into the X Men's computers were sitting back there. There was way too much to pack into the suitcase, the satellite sat half buried under the burnt out laptop and seemed to grin at Richard with it's lower half, as if saying, "Don't worry, we'll take care of the car. I have enough cash in my back pocket. What if the cops hear of the ten thousand dollar computer set up sent to the scrap yard? The X Men might file a report and they could put two and two togethor. Hell, your description might match up with a certain criminal investigator from Calgary."   
  
Ha, the X Men wouldn't even bother with the cops, they would be able to find him better than any cops, but even then they had no personal information on him. Richard was safe, and he was glad. He had no desire to ever run into Logan again. "Ah yes Logan, did he notice your license plate? You are registered to your bachelor apartment aren't you?" OH SHIT! "You forgot about that didn't you? Oh well, it's my job to remind you of your fuck ups. Remember that sixteen year old Japanese kid too? He probably never got to touch a girls breast aside from his wet dreams. Remember him? The way he branded you with his dying moments? And all that blood on the carpets." Shut up. "You bet. I'll leave you alone, but don't you still find it amazing how much blood a human body holds? Especially of young boys?"   
  
Richard did his best to force that familiar voice away and concentrate on what he had to do. It was very possible that Logan got his license plate number. Richard thought that Logan looked too ferocious and raw to be so refined as to notice the numbers on the back of the car, especially as the wheels ran over his steel skull like an oversized speedbump. He decided it would be a safe assumption that the plate wasn't noticed. He would go get a new plate for his Topaz and tell them his old one was stolen. That would be a reasonable precaution. Besides, all the computer stuff in the back wouldn't make it to the scrap yard. The truck driver, or someone from the scrapeyard would scoop it up for resale. And Logan was way to enraged to bother trying to remember anything, aside from Richard's face. Richard had no doubt that Logan would remember Richard on the drop of a dime. "Remember how Logan's face looked after you emptied your gun into him? Just like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He sure bled enough, but not quite as much as that woman in the businessman's bed. And not nearly as much as that young boy." Shut up. The voice did, but only for a few minutes then it snuck back into Richard's thoughts as he stood at the side of the road with his thumb out. This time Richard decided to give up the fight and just listen.  
  
It wasn't more than ten minutes before a beat up, faded blue pick up stopped for Richard. The kid driving it looked like he got his license yesterday.   
  
"Hey dude, what happened to your car?" The kid was smoking a cigarette and listening to raggae. Richard climbed into the truck.  
  
"Got attacked by a wild animal while I stopped to take a piss."  
  
The kid laughed loudly as he pulled away. Richard didn't think he was all that funny, but then again the cigarette looked like it was home rolled, and there was definately more than just tobacco inside. "Shit dude, your ride was mauled. What were you attacked by?" The kid was smiling and Richard couldn't tell if he was being joked with, or if the kid honestly believed some animal ripped the hood off a chevette and tore the muffler off as it was being run down.   
  
"I couldn't quite tell you, it was short and stocky. Had claws that seemed to go on forever, and it was a mean little bastard. Would give up no matter how many times I shot it."  
  
The kid howled at this, and Richard was starting to feel a little lightheaded, no windows were open and the kid had hot boxed the cab pretty good. Richard prayed they weren't pulled over.   
  
"Sounds like it was a wolverine. You ever seen one of those fuckers? Meanest fuckers you'd ever see. They'd rip you to pieces for just sneezin'."  
  
Richard thought that sounded right about Logan. The kid held out his smoke towards Richard and he gratefully declined. Instead he cracked open his window to try breathing oxygen again. The kid looked over and smiled, then decided to put out his smoke in the ashtray and open his window.  
  
"Sorry dude, I don't even realize how stuffy it get's in here. My name's Auston." He held his hand out to Richard who shook it briefly.   
  
"I'm Richard."   
  
"Good to meet you dude, I hope your going to New York cuz' that's where I'm headed."  
  
"Yeah thanks, so am I. Well, I was before the wolverine attacked me that is."  
  
The kid laughed, but didn't quite howl this time. Richard was starting to think that noone would quite realize how bad his jokes were, ever. The rest of the drive was just more of the same. Auston, the kid, would make an observation, Richard, the comedian, would make a bad joke, and Auston would laugh until his sides hurt. Richard was thankful when Auston finally dropped Richard off in front of his house.   
  
"Thanks again for taking me all the way home."  
  
"Hey, don't mention it dude. Your pretty fuckin' funny, and I'd hate to leave a funnyman to take the bus. Hope you get your ride runnin' soon."  
  
"Don't worry about it, I'll be up and driving before the end of the day."  
  
"Cool, peace."  
  
The truck drove off and Richard thought he should've gotten the kid's number. New age hippies were always able to get information the more, refined professionals had trouble with when it came to the lower levels of society. Oh well. Richard realized he left his newspaper in the car so he dropped a couple quarters into the box and grabbed the paper before he went back inside. Richard dropped the paper on the kitchen table and locked the door behind him. As he headed for the bathroom, Richard noticed the answering machine flashing, telling him he had a new message. Richard sat himself down on the toilet for a much needed clearing of his bowels, and he noticed an ant climb out of one of the traps he set by the sink with a chunk of poison in it's mandibles. Richard could remember when he punched the holes in the sides of the traps, it smelled like peanut butter to him. He had to double check the package to make sure he had ant poison, the scent was so convincing.   
  
Some of the most profound moments of revelation in human history seem to come while a man is taking a shit, and Richard had such a revelation while he was on the toilet that day. Richard decided that he didn't need the X Men to find Eric's hideout, there was someone else that was there and came back to tell the tale. It would be through this man that Richard would get the necessary information, and hopefully he would get there before the X Men.   
Richard knew where he lived, that was common knowledge to anyone who wanted to know, and now with the new political situations developing in the good ol' U S of A, his whereabouts would always be known by someone who could be bought. Richard sat down at the kitchen table and listened to the answering machine. The last shipment of supplies has arrived and Richard was expected at nine that night. He glanced at the clock and it was only two, plenty of time. Richard thought he'd lay down for a short nap before going to the warehouse. Now that would be alright.  
  
The alarm was set and Richard undressed. As he closed his eyes his thoughts turned back to his ticket to Magneto. Richard was going to have to pay a visit tomorrow. It almost hurt that Richard didn't think of this before, after all it was so widely publicized that Senator Robert Kelley was kidnapped by Magneto, and then converted (or possibly blackmailed) into doing a complete flip on mutant politics. Well, politicians were the easiest people in the universe to bribe for information, and Richard was going to make the most of it.   
  
Chapter 11  
  
Richard found himself in a familiar situation to him. The air was stale and dust could be seen floating all throughout. Light was reflecting from numerous grates, but he still saw the world through a sheen of blood. He was still wearing his infravision goggles. In time Richard found himself looking down through a familiar grate at a familiar room with a familiar young girl laying on a bed sleeping. This time she was alone.   
  
Richard reached down to his belt but found he didn't have a pistol, in fact he had no gun at all and he was wearing a black leather jump suit that he didn't recognize at all. The grate shifted and Richard almost tumbled over, but he stopped himself, only making a quiet thump as his reflexes shot a hand underneath him. The grate moved aside easily and Richard lowered himself into the room, his shoes dangling a few feet off the floor. Richard knew for a fact that he never wore hard soled shoes on a mission, and never gave a second thought to making small drops to the ground. When Richard's feet hit the ground there was a clack of hard rubber striking tiled floor, and Richard's heart beat so fast it seemed like it might burst in his chest while he stood beside the girl. The sound echoed in the room and to Richard it was loud enough to awaken the entire building, but the girl rolled away from him and pulled the blanket up closer. All he could see was the head of brown hair and the shape of her body under the covers.   
  
It wasn't a pleasant realization that Richard had come so far on the mission having forgotten to bring any weapons at all, and that he was so careless to wear hard boots. And this jump suit, where the fuck did he get it from? Richard set his mind to just strangle the girl, whatever get's the job done. He stepped towards the bed without a sound in spite of the clodhoppers he was wearing and stretched his hands towards the girl. He realized just then that the gloves he was wearing were thick, black leather gloves, not nearly nimple enough for Richard's liking considering what his hands were about to be employed as, but since there were no other gloves, and Richard had no intention of leaving finger prints, the thick gloves would have to do.   
  
His fingers wrapped themselves around the girls neck tightly and held on. She woke up and thrashed around in a panic. The covers got tossed off and Richard saw that she was naked, and from the look of her small breasts and hips she was a young teenage girl. What was he doing strangling a sixteen year old girl? She managed to turn towards him and stare at Richard. The entire world was covered with blood from Richard's point of view, but her face was so familiar. Richard couldn't quite place her, but he knew that he had seen her before, and now for a reason he couldn't remember he had to kill her. The girl beat at his hands and he closed his grip tighter, not even noticing her naked beauty (to be honest, murder wasn't the time that Richard felt very much like getting it on anyways). Her thrashing became lighter, and Richard could feel something collapsing in the girls neck, making it softer and allowing his fingers to wrap themselves tighter. Her gasps for air became softer and her arms lay still at her sides, but her eyes stared deep into Richard's, pleading and accusing at the same time. Richard was staring at the Japanese boy, but it was a naked girl instead. It was as if the murdered boy's soul had been reincarnated in this body, only to end up with that same accusing look it gave in it's last death, and to the same man. But Richard knew it was just the girl, there was no otherworldly spirit in her body.   
  
Richard's hands then clapped togethor, gripping nothing. The girl was still laying on the bed just as naked and just as pleading, but Richard's hands were sitting inside her neck, passing through like she were an illusion. The girl sat up and got back her breath. Richard tried to wrap his hands around her throat but they still passed through her. He stuck a hand into her back and the hand dissapeared in her skin and Richard could see it reappear between the swells of her breasts. The young girl stood and looked at Richard and said, "No men are allowed in here, and you are no exception. Since you are in here, you must not be a man." The girl walked through Richard, at one point her small frame was completely consumed in his body, and dissapeared into a wall. Richard looked around dumbfounded, then a slow realization dawned on him, there were no doors to the room. The only way in and out, for people who couldn't walk through walls of course, was through the vent in the ceiling, except there was no longer any vent in the ceiling. Richard jumped and hit the spot where the vent used to be, but only touched a solid surface. It dawned on Richard that this was his punishment for trying to kill a girl young enough that he could be punished for just seeing her naked. Richard was going to spend the few remaining days of his life trapped in a room that noone knew existed except that ghost girl, and it was doubtful she'd return.   
  
The room was completely bare, save the single bed the girl slept on. But something was wrong (aside from the fact that a girl walked through a wall and a hole that was in the ceiling is now gone), but that is the nature of dreams. Richard slowly realized this was a dream and set his sleeping mind to decipher what was wrong with the room, there was light. The room should've been pitch black with no way in or out, and no light fixtures, but it was illuminated just the same. Only to Richard it was illuminated in a bright red, a blood red. No, Richard decided it wasn't a blood red, it was brighter, almost like looking through stained glass, maybe ruby. Then hands grabbed him from the mysterious light...  
  
Chapter 12  
  
...And Richard found himself staring straight into the furious eyes of Logan, that friendly school security gaurd. Richard was no longer in the doorless room, but in his own bed with the overhead light turned on and Logan so close to his face that Richard could smell the cigar breath. For a moment neither spoke, Richard was scared stiff, he wouldn't have been able to come up with two adjacent, logical words in those few moments if his life depended on it which it seemed it now did. And he could feel moisture expanding down at his crotch under the covers. Logan didn't speak for different reasons.   
  
Finally the silence was broken, but Logan barely spoke above a whisper. That didn't prevent Richard from hearing the intense rage in Logan's voice though.  
  
"Hey bub, I have something for you."  
  
Logan let go of Richard with one hand and reached down the side of the bed and brought up a large chunk of metal that Richard could instantly recognize. The muffler was completely destroyed from being torn off, but still retained it's familiarity, like an old friend who came for a surprise visit when your sweetheart was in town for the weekend and all yours for just one evening.   
  
"Don't worry about thanking me, I'll be able to take what I want just fine."   
  
Logan dropped the muffler and it hit the carpet with a metallic thud. Richard stared wide-eyed and speachless as three claws sang out of Logan's free hand. The claws were raised high and Richard closed his eyes and screamed, but no sound came out.  



	7. Part 7

Disclaimer: Yada yada yada.... I wonder... If I get away without any real disclaimers for long enough, do I eventually get to own the X Men?  
  
Well, I'm back after a long time. Hopefully you all haven't forgotten me. *smiles* Here's another chapter and I hope to hear back from you.  
  
Chapter 13  
  
Richard opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling above him, his vision blurred from sweat tricking into his eyes. He slowly sat up and looked around his house, and shuddered to realize there was no Logan. Dreams were not Richard's favorite past time anymore. The overhead light was indeed on and he couldn't remember if it was on when he went to bed or not. The bedside clock read quarter past seven, only fifteen minutes until the alarm would go off. Richard turned off the alarm and pulled the blankets off only to see a large wet spot in his shorts. Cursing under his breath Richard stood up and pulled them off, but the wet spot didn't feel like urine, it was drying making the shorts stiff like starch. It seemed unbelievable to Richard, but as far as his penis was concerned he had juts had a wet dream.  
  
Holding his sweat and cum stained clothes Richard walked over to the washing machine and dropped them in. After scanning the house for the rest of his dirty laundry Richard started up the wash and had a quick shower. While Richard washed himself his mind returned to his dream. Logan was just the type of dream an author would put in with the vague hope of cheating a scare out of the reader. He could remember a novel he had written once where the author had the character fall asleep, only to wake up to find his kidnapper holding a shotgun to his face. It scared Richard at the time, but when the four line chapter ended with the hero staring into the barrel of the loaded shotgun as it was fired, only to wake up and find out it was a dream, Richard had always thought that was a cheap tactic ever since. But this was real life and the dream had scared the piss out of Richard. Or maybe it was cum. Richard put Logan away in his mind and thought of the dream that preceded that, the girl was familiar and Richard now knew that she was the same girl from his previous dream. Even still, he couldn't get his mind off the idea he had seen the girl somewhere in life before. Richard washed his groin and guessed her naked body did more for him than he was led to believe at the time. Suddenly, as if the current in his brain was just turned on Richard remembered where he had seen the girl before. He saw her at Xavier's school when he was being chased by Logan. She was standing by some trees and he could remember the unease he felt when he did see her, but at the time she wasn't linked to his dream. If Richard was dreaming of real people he hadn't met yet, then what would this mean? He still maintained in his own mind that dreams don't have prophetic powers, they're only subconcious voices screaming from the dark recesses of the mind.  
  
But he could no longer deny that his mind had made an exact replica of the girl in the first dream before he had ever seen her, "No men allowed, and since you are here you must not be a man.". He must have seen her before, maybe he saw her on the street and his mind catalogued her for future reference. Richard rolled his eyes at that thought. He turned the shower off and toweled dried. He grabbed a clean shirt and jeans then put his shoulder harness on. He pushed a clip into his pistol and took an extra two. The brown leather jacket Richard had covered up the harness perfectly, but was too baggy to make access to the gun difficult. Richard loved that jacket. It was seven thirty, Richard had plenty of time to get to the warehouse. He decided he'd leave early and left his house.   
  
The curb sat empty and the first thought that crossed Richard was that someone had stolen his car. He stood there and stared down the street, then an image came back to him, Logan standing behind the car, Richard could see him in the rearview mirror holding the remains of his muffler like a fish he just caught. The memories came back to Richard with an unpleasant feeling in his gut. He could remember deciding to buy a car by the end of the day, but at the time he didn't know he would have to make it to the warehouse. Taking a taxi there was out of the question, and the buses wouldn't get him there on time. Richard remembered a used car lot at the end of the road and decided he might as well go buy one now if it was still open.   
  
Richard got there in five minutes and was pleased to see it was still open for another ten. He looked around the cars briefly then saw a Ford Tempo for two thousand dollars. A young man in a suit walked towards him.  
  
"Hello sir, may I help you? You know we are closing..."  
  
"I want this car." The salesman blinked then smiled his award winning smile.   
  
"Well, then come with me and we'll get you all set up."  
  
Fifteen minutes later Richard was driving a piece of shit with a tendancy to leak exhaust into the passenger compartment. The engine didn't sound much better than Richard's chevette after Logan stole the muffler and the steering wheel would sit at a strong angle to keep the car driving straight.   
And all for only two thousand dollars, what a deal.  
  
The car managed to make it to the warehouse in one piece, but Richard thought he heard a piece fall off at a speedbump, not like he could really tell since the engine sounded like there was a roaring lion sitting right beside him. Richard had to pull over and open all the windows in the car in a hope that the exhaust wouldn't kill him before he got to the warehouse.   
  
  
The warehouse was actually a cluster of buildings at a dock used for industrial overseas shipements, and at night usually reserved for drug shipments. Tonight 'the supplier' had the rights. Richard knew the area by heart, when dealing with illegal materials, it always paid to know the in's and out's of wherever you were doing the transfer in case you got busted. the worst thing that could happen is to run into a dead end while being tailed by cops. There were no cops with a clue of what was going on at the dock that night, but there was someone who had an interest in what was happening, and trouble was coming Richard's way.  
  
Richard parked his car and climbed out. He could see one figure standing by the dock smoking a cigarette, but he knew there were more. Glancing at the closest warehouse, Richard could see a rifle pointed at him through a rough cut window in the metal siding up on the second floor. Richard raised his hands and stepped away from his car into the open.  
  
"Hey, it's just me. I had an accident and had to buy another car on real short notice. I'm alone." Richard called out looking at the man in the dock, but speaking more for the rifleman's comfort (well the one rifleman he could see at least).  
  
A man walked out of an open door underneath the window and when the man passed under the light of a lamp Richard immediately recognized Larry.  
  
"Jesus Christ Richard, you gave us all one hell of a scare when we saw that car. Why the hell are you driving a piece of shit like that for anyways?"  
  
"Sorry man, it's just that the car got wrecked, then as soon as I got home I heard my order was in and I didn't have much time to pick up a new car before I had to come here."  
  
"No problem. Come with me, we got your stuff." Larry lowered his voice even though Richard doubted anyone could hear them in the middle of the parking lot, "Listen, I heard about Magneto getting out of jail and did a bit of research on him. Noone knows where he lives but Kelley does, the guy running to be President."  
  
Richard laughed, "I was thinking the same thing, go and ask him a few questions about his kidnapping."  
  
"Yeah, but the thing is... it's a hell of a lot tougher to get near him now. There's an underground organization calling themselves the Friends of Humanity, and they aren't all that fond of Kelley's new stance on mutants."  
  
"Friends of humanity? I've never heard of them."   
  
"Yeah I know, they're super hush hush. They are extremists in the purist sense, dangerous people to be around. I know one and he's the meanest bastard I know, not too smart though. It won't be long before they start taking hits out on mutants themselves. Kelley's already afraid they might put a hit on him. Compared to the foh," Richard couldn't help but laugh at Larry's attempt to abbreviate the friends into a single syllable, "hey shut up and listen."  
  
"Sorry." Richard was still smiling.  
  
"Compared to the fo... the friends, the mutant registration act is small potatoes. I'd be scared of them myself if I was known to be a mutie sympathizer. I think they'd be able to find even Nemesis if they really tried."  
  
"Fuck off, noone has that many connections. Nemesis could have them squashed. That man has contacts and hitmen running out of his asshole for a chance to work for him."  
  
"Yeah I know, but the thing is, they have people in almost every walk of life watching for sympathizers. I've been watching them a few months and I think they're organizing a large scale massacre of sympathizers really soon. Eventually they will go public, but they want the major opposition out of the way first so they can brainwash the public."  
  
The two men walked into the warehouse. A mist rolled in off the ocean and a light rain started to beat down on the docks. Larry looked outside, "Wasn't supposed to rain tonight, but oh well. I guess even the weathermen put their pants on one leg at a time."  
  
Richard looked out across the water and an uneasy feeling settled into his gut. Normally he would trust his instincts that something was wrong, but this time he forced it away and focused on the deal. After all, even if someone did trail them in, Larry had the entire dock rigged up with surveillance equipment to pick up anything the authorities could throw at them. Noone suspected that there might me a more dangerous group of people after them, after Richard specifically.  
  
Larry led Richard to a small card table and they sat down opposite each other. Richard could count a dozen men, fully armed with night vision attached to their helmets, watching through windows along the second story catwalk. There were undoubtedly more he couldn't see. Larry called over a man wearing a ski mask that made him look like a ninja, and told him to get Richard's shipment. The masked man darted off and Larry resumed talking.  
  
"Listen, I'm not a mutie supporter, you know that, but I'm not a genocide freak either. Nothing wrong with what your doing, I mean business is business, but what these other guys are doing will put us all in danger. Right now noone cares about the occasional murder of mutants, the public will tend to look the other way. But these friends, they'll get a large crowd riled up ready to riot, and another crowd ready to defend the mutants with their lives. Nothing productive will result and we'll have to lay low because the law will have no choice but to commit extra resources to crimes against mutants. If Kelley manages to survive, I think he'll end up winning on the registration because there will be more people who believe it's better for everyone. That's what I think."  
  
"This is a bitch of a thing." Richard was quite uneasy at this point. He couldn't help but look back at the door they came in through, it was closed now, but the mist wanted to bring back a memory, only once Richard thought he could see what his brain was trying to tell him, but the thought dissapeared back into the muck before he could put his finger on it. "Well I can't do anything about these yahoos right now, but I do need to get to Kelley. What can you tell me about his security?"  
  
Larry smiled warmly at Richard and it brought up the image of the car salesman. This was Larry's award winning smile. "Listen, it's nearly impossible to get to him while he's anywhere away from his home, and he's living in a penthouse right now in Washington. It's strange, right after Kelley got back he moved away from his family to Washington DC and bought a home thirty stories up and doesn't seem to have any friends there. I've had some people watching him and he's been extremely reclusive. He's been very smart about it, since the media hasn't noticed, but I've noticed."  
  
Richard leaned back in his chair and wondered what might be taking the masked man so long with his supplies. "Your darting around the subject, what can be done about the security?"  
  
"I'm not darting around anything Richard, you have to catch him at his home in Washington. You don't even have to worry about running into his family there. But you I don't think you'll get in unnoticed. Foh is watching him too." Richard managed to stop a laugh and it came out as a half assed cough. "They've been watching him for a long time. Did you see the news report back when he was with his family and his daughter did that screwed up rubber man thing?"  
  
Richard could remember what he was talking about, it was a FOX special on the politics about mutants and the proposed mutant registration. At the end of the show Kelley's daughter turned out to be a mutant, or so people were supposed to believe. The girls neck grew numerous inches and her arms stretched out towards her father like rubber. Kelley stared at her but she assured him she still loved him. There was a big stink on the news and the reporters at Fox swore that what we watched wasn't the intended footage. It was later proved the video was doctored and someone had replaced the last bit with this hoax while the beginning of the report was airing. The National Enquirer refused to believe it was a hoax though.   
  
"Yeah I remember that. They did a pretty good job of editing his daughter into that clip of Kelley. But I could tell he was staring past her, and the graphics were a little blurry on her stretching parts." Richard did admire whoever put the clip togethor, and could understand why most of the public thought it could be real. It was put togethor very well.  
  
"Yeah well that was when foh came about. They originally started to watch Kelley's back for more hoax's like that. They weren't so radical back then, only half a dozen people. But they've started watching Kelley himself ever since the report on his official opposition to mutant registration."  
  
"What are you talking about? You say that as if the footage itself was important."   
  
Larry nodded, "It is, did you see that one? The morning after Magneto caused all that damage to the Statue of Liberty with his bomb it was on the news right before they talked about the shit that went down at Liberty Island." Richard had to strain his mind to remember what he did the morning afterwards. He was at that coffee shop and he saw the footage of the statue, and of the X Men stepping off into oblivion. He must've just missed Kelley.  
  
"No I clicked into the news right afterwards."  
  
"Well listen, I was watching it and I saw something that was right. At first I figured it was a glitch on the TV, or maybe a reflection from Kelley's glasses into the camera. But I've been recording any news reports about mutants and I rewound this one because my mind couldn't place what was wrong. I was just curious at what the mistake was. When I went through again I saw Kelley's eyes change color."  
  
Richard leaned forward again and put his hands on the table. "What? It must've been a glare from the camera. Red eye or something like that."  
  
"No, I don't mean red eye or even the colored part of a man's eye, but both of his eyes turned yellow, even the whites, and held that until he blinked twice and they changed back."  
  
"Your tv's fucked then. That doesn't happen."  
  
"No way, I have the tape in my car because I wanted you to take it home and see it for yourself. Something is screwy with Senator Kelley and before you go to talk to him, you need to know as much about him as you can. I think something happened to him while he was with Magneto."  
  
Neither of them spoke for what seemed to Richard like an hour. Richard was eager to see the video of Kelley. Larry looked around, "Where the hell is he? I sent him off for your shit ages ago."  
  
Richard glanced around and realized that the masked man was nowhere in site. He last saw the fellow leave through the opposite door in the warehouse, he should've been back nearly fifteen minutes ago.   
  
A man up on the second floor begain talking into his radio and Larry snatched up a walkie talkie from his belt.  
  
"Sir, there's some sort of craft in the water, it floated in and we couldn't see it in the mist."  
  
Richard's stomach lurched. He didn't need to know anymore to know who it was.  
  
"Four subjects have stepped out onto land, but it's difficult to make them out in the fog. Shall I send someone to investigate?"  
  
Richard spoke before Larry got a word out, "It's the X Men, they're the ones who stopped Magneto at Liberty Island. They're jet is invisible to surveillance, that's how they got here. They're after me."  
  
Larry stared with his mouth open. "What the fuck are you talking about Richard?"  
  
"Larry, we don't have time, get everyone out of here right away."  
  
The radio crackled to life again. "Sir, they have spread out, two heading here and two more next door. Sir, we have been spotted and all four are converging on our location."  
  
Larry spoke quickly, "Open fire, don't let them get in. I warn you all, they are mutants. I repeat, they are mutants. Fire at will!"  
  
The sound of breaking glass and someone screamed from the second floor caused Richard to look up in time to see one of the gaurds fall backwards over the rail and hit the cement ground with a dull thud. Other gaurds opened fire, the muzzles of their rifles making bright flashes in the night. Two more gaurds ran to the front windows doubling the number of sentries and began to shoot outside. One after another, a red blast of energy broke through the glass. Two men were struck in the chest, stumbled back and fell over the rail landing on the ground with a thin trail of smoke rising from their bodies. The third and fourth hit the rail and fell forward onto the catwalk and the fifth was hit in the neck blasting his head clear off his body. The head flew back twenty feet then rolled, coming to a stop less than five feet away from Richard. Larry threw his chair back and ran for the opposite door and Richard stood to join him. The door leading to the danger zone was blasted open with another red light and he looked back in time to see a familiar face step into the dim light of the warehouse.  
  



End file.
